At a recent party to honour David Pencheon, head of the NHS Sustainability Unit, we were all invited to have a go at defining sustainable intelligence. When I was a boy there was only one kind of intelligence. It was tested for in Intelligence Quotient tests, and important decisions were made about us based on […]
Monday to Friday, for weeks now, there has been a teleconference bringing together the leads from all the major organisations across Lincolnshire involved in health and social care. The ambulance and community services, acute and mental health plus adult social care, are all regularly represented. The meeting is chaired by a commissioner. The purpose is […]
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Amongst the many misleading arguments, which are frequently used to promote useless treatments, this one occupies a prominent place. When I first heard it, I was impressed: it is succinct and elegant. In fact, it is also entirely logical: the absence of evidence for extra-terrestrial life represents […]
A report released by the World Bank on 29 February highlighted that, despite the global recession, the number of people living on $1.25 per day has reduced across all regions of the world. For South Asia in general the bank reported that the poverty rate fell from 61 percent to 39 percent between 1981 and […]
I sat down with a manager who has an in depth knowledge and experience of commissioning services for people with learning disabilities, as I wanted to understand why we seemed to be doing poorly on delivering health checks. It seems so simple. Practices should offer an annual health check to people with learning disabilities. There […]
I always rather enjoy being processed by the NHS. Instead of my usual panoramic (and perhaps highly misleading) view I’m down in the scrub. What struck me in my latest encounter was the extreme primitiveness of the records. The medical part of the encounter was well managed. I woke with a prominent floater in my […]
The reforms grind on. In the stratosphere there is a lot of noise and turbulence—people arguing passionately and polemically. Meanwhile the architecture of a new system is being constructed around those of us working in the old system. People are wondering where their future lies, or if they have a future. The basic construct is […]
Seven years ago today I flew into Lungi airport on an SN Brussels flight together with a few other people who were soon to be my colleagues and housemates. I remember it being hot and sticky while we were waiting to get on a helicopter to reach Freetown. I remember the drive along the beach […]
< Is it better to write blogs or a book? I wondered this the other night as I attended the party to celebrate the launch of a friend's book. […]
I have met clinicians and patients in many parts of England in the last five years and here is a list of the type of questions that cannot be answered. 1. Is the service for people with seizures and epilepsy in Manchester better than the service in Liverpool? 2. Who is responsible for the headache […]