“The NHS is not fit for the 21st century,” was the headline in the Daily Telegraph this weekend, reporting on an interview with Professor Ted Baker, the new chief inspector of hospitals. It seems like only yesterday that another Professor—Stephen Hawking—felt compelled to raise concerns in the press about the current state of the NHS. […]
The NHS is primarily concerned with fending off death. It may be crazy, but it’s so. No expense is spared: heroic surgery, prolonged chemotherapy, absurdly expensive drugs, intensive care, experimental treatments, whatever—the cash-strapped NHS will find the money. As a consequence those activities little concerned with death—dentistry, mental health, social care, and even primary care—“must […]
Last week I referred to “‘competence’ and the more recent ‘competency’”. But both of these words first appeared in English, as cited in the OED, in 1594. So in what sense is “competency” more recent than “competence”? The answer lies in the countability of nouns. The Danish philologist Otto Jespersen expounded the concept of count […]
Public health precautionary strategies are needed at national and local level to protect populations from harm from gambling […]
It’s indisputable that privatisation is occurring in the NHS, so where does privatisation denial come from? […]
This morning I’ve read a disappointingly shallow account in the Economist of the attempt to cure cancer and a quote from Schopenhauer that could be sent as a letter to the Economist in response to its articles on cancer. I’m an admirer of the Economist, but it’s in thrall to technology. I find the science […]
To recap: the triad of knowledge, skills, and performance is, I have suggested, a modern trivium, underpinned by a modern quadrivium—literacy, numeracy, oracy, and computeracy. In its document Working with Doctors; Working for Patients, the General Medical Council defines performance extensionally, listing seven types of activities that it expects doctors to fulfil. Six are prefaced […]
I used to work in a hospital that was run by nuns. Priests also had a role but they were very much in second place. The main job of the priest was to give last rites at cardiac arrests. Catholic priests give last rites to people who are dying—to cleanse them of their sins. Some […]
As I discussed last week, skills and knowledge constitute the art and science of medicine. To these the General Medical Council, in the first domain in its document Working with Doctors; Working for Patients, adds “performance”. This suggests a modern reworking of an ancient construct, the trivium (implying eloquence) and the quadrivium (implying knowledge). The […]
Dr Tedros set out his priorities on SDGs […]