Perhaps 20, possibly 25 or even 30, years ago I had breakfast (or was it lunch?) with Geoffrey Marsh, a GP from Teesside, and he told me that all GPs should have 3000 patients. I think he was right, but since that time average list sizes have steadily shrunk until they are now under 1600. […]
About a billion people end the day hungry, another billion are obese, and food prices are steadily rising. Clearly something is very wrong with the world’s food system, and the Economist last week held a conference on Feeding the World. As several people pointed out, it might better have been called Nourishing the World as […]
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” (Pogo) Manica Balasegaram makes a number of excellent points in his recent post, but his conclusion that “the system is broken” only addresses part of the problem. I read the piece at the MSF website on “Looking for alternative models” with interest, but I do not […]
Diabetes teams do not usually perform operations or procedures, and cure is rare indeed, but what they do have in abundance are data. The collection, reporting, and review of data are embedded within the clinical experience of everyone living with the condition and their healthcare providers, and in the UK, diabetes data are converted into […]
A first year medical student of today may well still be practising in 2070. We can’t know how medicine will look then, but we can see some clear trends. The relationship between doctors and patients will surely be much more equal; indeed, health will be the business primarily of patients, with doctors as advisers, guides, […]
The NHS has paid out vast amounts—probably hundreds of millions of pounds—in recent years as a result of decisions that patients were not entitled to NHS Continuing Care (where the NHS meets the costs of a package of social care and accommodation outside a hospital). Mostly these are claims by relatives of deceased patients who […]
Digitisation of the NHS will both save and improve it believe Jeremy Hunt, secretary of state for health, and Tim Kelsey, national director for patients and information at NHS England. Both were youthful, bubbly, and even charming as they did a double act last week at the Cambridge Health Network, although Kelsey had to perform […]
The first residential for the NHS Leadership Academy felt barely five minutes ago, so I balked as I realised how much there was to do for the next. The reading list and exercises laid out for me on the online campus disappeared off the bottom of my computer screen. An unwelcome yet horribly familiar feeling […]
One might think that vegetarian diets are better for one’s health, but that is not necessarily the case, as it is possible to be vegetarian and consume predominantly “empty calories” like French fries or biscuits. But balanced and appropriately planned vegetarian diets could make a considerable difference to one’s health, according to Annemarie Ijkema, a […]
The Goldfinch, the eagerly awaited third novel of Donna Tartt, featured on many of our Christmas reading lists. As I devoured this wonderful repositioning of the Dickensian novel into the 21st century—with drug consumption taking the place of gin palaces—little did I imagine that it would also provide a fascinating prelude to my annual visit […]