“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”—Albert Einstein Healthcare is broken, nowhere more so than in the US where they spend 18% of GDP on it and achieve only the 37th best (sic) outcomes in the world. How healthcare got here is a sad tale of self-interest […]
Category: Columnists
Desmond O’Neill: Anthropology, ageing, and medicine
The Meeting Room of the Royal Irish Academy is one of the hidden gems of academic architecture in Dublin, a city belatedly recognising the richness of its Victorian heritage (1). Behind a discreet red-brick façade on a busy street in central Dublin, the prelude to the experience is by way of a hushed procession through […]
Richard Smith: A successful and cheerful whistleblower
Peter Wilmshurst is that rare thing—a successful whistleblower. What’s more, he’s a cheerful one, despite having lost £25 000, faced bankruptcy and the loss of his house, and spent every evening, weekend, and his annual leave for three years successfully defending an egregious libel case. Most readers of the BMJ must be familiar with the […]
Kieran Walsh: Can we make savings in medical education?
The age of austerity in the NHS has only just begun. The next few years will likely bring closed Casualty departments, downgraded district hospitals, longer waiting times, and rationed treatments. As Whitehall casts around for more targets for efficiency savings, will it look at the £5 billion spent each year on healthcare professionals’ education? Will […]
Muir Gray: How to design and plan population based systems
I will present the approach we use in designing and planning population based systems of care in ten short blogs. Here are the ten steps: Define the scope of the system. Define the population to be served. Reach agreement on the aim and objectives of the service. For each objective find one or […]
Marge Berer: Jeremy Hunt supports 12 week limit for abortion
At the Labour conference last week, Andy Burnham accused Jeremy Hunt of failing to make any statements about important current health service issues in parliament since he became health secretary. What a pity he decided to speak up last week, because now we know just how uninformed he is. Hunt said he favoured reducing the […]
Tiago Villanueva: Can doctors become “transnational” professionals?
A recent BBC article about the globalisation of work and people, written by Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice, argues that there will be more professionals called “transnationals,” as the job and education market become increasingly globalised. Gratton defines a transnational as a “worldwide group of people who are able to relocate at any time, […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Transforming communities to be healthy and active
Audacious actions are being taken in Aruba, an island paradise in the Caribbean, to improve the health of its residents, said Richard Visser, the Minister of Health, Welfare, and Sport of Aruba at a recent meeting I attended. Of late the residents of this paradise have taken a turn for the worse healthwise as more […]
Pritpal S Tamber: How my local CCG disrespects its patients
I went to my local “patient participation” group meeting last week. My local practice said they were seeking feedback on their commissioning plans and suggested I attend. This was quite gracious (and brave) of them given how rude I was about their attempts to create a patient leaflet. I think all non-practising clinicians and health […]
Desmond O’Neill: René Magritte and the art of geriatric medicine
The addition of a cultural focus to scientific congresses is increasingly common. More often than not the event relates more to the city chosen rather than the subject matter of the congress. However, given that most great art relates to the human condition, it is difficult not to find interesting resonances between the art and […]