Roddy Doyle nailed it. The unspoken aimlessness of middle aged man. His collection of short stories, “Bullfighting,” was frightening in its ordinariness, the drifting banality of a forgotten tribe. What is left after fatherhood, football coaching, and family? Stories that feature invisible men whose children have grown up, work has plateaued, declined, or disappeared, and stories where the […]
Category: Domhnall MacAuley
Domhnall MacAuley: Enjoying exams
Waking to a hint of bacon frying as the morning sun slanted shadows on the croquet lawn outside. It was the day of the clinical examinations at the MSc in Sports Medicine at Trinity College Dublin. One of the perks of being an examiner is to stay in the beautifully appointed guest rooms overlooking a […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Palliative care
Dying is not much fun. As a GP I have seen a lot of it. Its not the very end bit that bothers me. The last breath is, paradoxically, often serene and peaceful. What I find most difficult is that wretched time that starts when hope is torn away and illness sates its unrelenting hunger. The […]
Domhnall MacAuley: The day the brakes went on
The consortia dream screeched to a halt. As I watched breakfast TV in the airport lounge on my way to the GP forum, the controversial health reforms were unravelling. The forum meeting was entitled “Commissioning Consortia: Examining the comprehensive business and clinical issues for a successful practice-led future” and suddenly, it seemed inappropriate. The health […]
Domhnall MacAuley: primary care in Brazil
Five of his pregnant patients were dead. Three murdered by drug dealers when they couldn’t pay their bills and two killed by the police. A very different maternal mortality in frontline general practice. Marcello Garcia Kolling, a GP in Curitiba, and president of the 2º Congresso Sul Brasileiro de Medicina de Família e Comunidade, estimates […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Martin Roland in Belfast
Like it or loathe it, practice will never be the same. Constant data audit, screen reminders, and intrusive disease monitoring protocols have, undoubtedly, altered the consultation but, the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) has, I believe, improved my clinical care. At a recent meeting at the Centre of Excellence for Public Health, Northern Ireland, Martin […]
Domhnall MacAuley on sports medicine’s top ten
Sports medicine’s top ten. The keynote speaker had to drop out – could I give a talk about the top papers in 2010 at the UK sports and exercise medicine meeting (UKSEM) …this is a selection of papers that caught my eye with some additional suggestions from colleagues. See what you think: […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Comprehensivists vs partialists at NAPCRG
Innovative primary care pilot programmes are big news in the US. Money talks, and from a business perspective, primary care is good value. So good, that Paul Grundy’s (US) company IBM provides free primary care to its employees and incentivises referral strategies. Rebranded as the advanced medical home in the US, his model of personal and […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Tops docs at NAPCRG
Britain’s top doctors. The headline caught my attention in the supplement to last Saturday’s “Times.” At a time when doctors seem under almost daily attack, it was good to see a UK national newspaper list some positives. Excellent doctors. Medicine in the headlines for the best reasons. But where were the general practitioners? There was […]
Domhnall MacAuley on editors, journals, and Harry Potter
Paddington Bear was at the end of the platform. And, he is still there 15 years later as I travel through London on my way to the BMJ office – still a children’s favourite. But, medical publishing has changed dramatically. Working with Pippa Smart on a training course for medical editors highlighted the transformation. When I first […]