Sport is seductive. Its exciting, thrilling, and emotional. Watching a sport you enjoy, it is hard not to become drawn into the drama. As a doctor involved with the players, it is difficult to remain dispassionate. When Wendy Chapman sat before the GMC, with events drawn out by counsel, the scene was very different to […]
Category: Editors at large
Elizabeth Loder on making fresh, local food available to all – one tomato at a time
“Only two things that money can’t buy, and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.” So sings Guy Clark in his cult country-western song. He was right about that last year, when the tomatoes in much of Massachusetts (including those in the backyard garden of yours truly) were hit with late blight. That’s the same fungus […]
Domhnall MacAuley on the “back then” brigade
Reading the Times (Wed 11 August), it was clear I was mistaken in thinking they had gone away. The “back then” brigade are back; hankering over the good old days when doctors were trained properly. Not this namby pamby part time medicine where junior doctors clock off early. Not like in our day. […]
Domhnall MacAuley on Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong in the news again. The world is divided. Those who read his book are struck by his bravery coping with illness and the incredible drama of his surgery for metastatic testicular cancer and return to fitness. Unbelievable. But, unfortunately, the same word is sometimes used to describe his cycling career. To win the […]
David Payne on Florence Nightingale
Today, 100 years ago, Florence Nightingale died aged 90. Much has been written about the Lady with the Lamp, who left behind her aristocratic life to nurse wounded soldiers in the Crimea, returning to London to help found the modern nursing profession, campaign for sanitary reform and hospital design, and hone her skills as a […]
David Payne asks: Should forensic medicine be female-led?
Since 2000 the Havens centres in London have helped more than 11 000 people of both sexes who have been raped or sexually assaulted. Like many sexual assault referral centres (SARCs), the Havens doesn’t employ male doctors. All of its examiners are female, so if you want a male doctor at a follow up appoinment, […]
Tessa Richards: What does the EU do for you?
British doctors worrying about the impact of the chilly financial climate should spare a thought for their European colleagues. In Greece, the Baltic states, Spain, and Ireland, doctors, along with other public sector workers, have had their salaries and pensions cut by up to 15%, drug budgets have been reduced, and some services put on […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Memories of the RCGP at Princes Gate
The floors creaked and groaned, the doors wheezed closed and the windows didn’t shut properly. The rooms wore the tired look of times past and few were en suite. Hidden behind a curved door in the hallway was a very small and ancient lift that struggled with every ascent. But, staying on the top floor […]
David Payne on Colin Blakemore’s childhood
The UK coalition government’s Academies Bill was rushed through Parliament this week, giving the green light to parents to set up their own schools. Critics argue that it’s a backward step, a return to the two-tierism that characterised the distinction between grammar and secondary moderns before they were replaced by comprehensive education in much of […]
David Payne on Raoul Moat and Desert Island Discs
The sorry saga of fugitive gunman Raoul Moat has no doubt triggered countless watercooler conversations about the extent to which he was “mad, bad, or just plain evil.” A colleague described him as less of a threat than the media painted him on the grounds that all of the people he killed or maimed were […]