Back in June, I was putting the finishing touches to my application for the NHS Leadership Academy. A new and ambitious venture, it aims to bring leadership and management development to all corners of the NHS on an “industrial scale.” [1] According to its website, around £46 million will be invested into the academy by […]
Category: Columnists
Desmond O’Neill: Four helicopters and a string quartet
Unlike last year, there was not a formal cultural event at this year’s European geriatric medicine congress. The organising committee may rightly have considered this superfluous with the glories of Venice at our doorstep. Indeed, large numbers of geriatricians were observed garnering informal extra-mural CPD at the many locations across the island displaying the wonderful […]
Richard Smith: Kissing the hand that Hitler kissed
In the early 80s I kissed a hand that Hitler had kissed. Once I realised what I’d done I felt like spitting, but I didn’t. This is how my physical connection with one of history’s monsters came about. In those days I was the BBC Breakfast Time doctor. Twice, sometimes thrice, a week I would […]
David Kerr: Will smart pills help improve patients’ compliance?
In a recent YouTube video the NHS Confederation highlighted that by 2050 one quarter (18 million) of adults in the UK will be living with a long-term medical condition. In my own speciality of diabetes, people living with this condition are prescribed multiple classes of medications including drugs and injections to control glucose levels, two […]
Julian Sheather: To see the world in a grain of wheat
Many years ago I was walking along Kilburn High Road with a sharp-eyed naturalist friend when he spotted an ear of domestic wheat growing in one of those squares of soil cut into the pavement for urban trees—forlorn scraps of earth that litter gets stuck in, cigarettes get put out in, and dogs (and the […]
William Cayley: Caring about the patient’s story
Who do you care about? The authors of guidelines? The producers of evidence? Those who audit your practice? Or perhaps your patients? Sophie Cook’s recent post on consultation skills finally provided the impetus for me to put pen to paper (or rather, fingers to keyboard) regarding my own recent ponderings on these issues. I trained […]
Richard Smith: Doctors should think less about drugs and more about food
Doctors, who prescribe drugs, are at the top of the health hierarchy, whereas nutritionists are near the bottom. At medical school students learn a huge amount about drugs, but little or nothing about food. When managing patients doctors think drugs first and any other response a long way second. We’ve had pharmacopeias for over a […]
Tiago Villanueva: The obesity epidemic in Mexico
I recently learned that about 38% of the calories consumed by pregnant women in Mexico comes from the consumption of sugary drinks, like sodas. Mexico also has the highest consumption of Coca-cola per capita of anywhere else in the world. Not surprisingly, Mexico also has the highest growth of obesity rates in the world. Mexico’s […]
Richard Smith: Moving from global heath 3.0 to global health 4.0
Global health 1.0 was called tropical medicine and was primarily concerned with keeping white men alive in the tropics. Global health 2.0 was called international health and comprised clever people in rich countries doing something to help people in poor countries. It had Cold War overtones. Global health 3.0, which is still the main manifestation […]
Desmond O’Neill: Clinical glasshouses and stones
One of the positive aspects of working in smaller hospitals in Ireland is the professional mingling that takes place in local clinical societies. Living and working in a smaller pond means that consultants and GPs tend to know each other better. The mutual sympathy engendered for the challenges of working in other sectors of the […]