Whenever I drive through the province of Sindh in southern Pakistan, I’m struck by the vast expanse of once-thriving farmland that now lies barren. Standing water from last year’s catastrophic floods has ensured there will be no harvest here – in Pakistan’s agricultural heartland – for some time to come. Six months after the flooding […]
Category: Guest writers
Rachel Wake: A glimpse into “Choleraville,” Haiti
There is a Haitian proverb which goes “deye mon, gen mon” – beyond the mountains there are mountains. Consider Haiti’s history for a moment – tainted by slavery, witchcraft, civil unrest, disease, and natural disaster – and its meaning begins to be realised. I arrived in the capital, Port-au-Prince as a medical volunteer two weeks […]
Abhay Bang on saving children’s lives
In 1945 my father had just been released from prison after taking part in India’s freedom movement and wanted to travel to the US to study economics. One week before he was due to leave he went to see Mahatma Gandhi and asked for his blessing. The old man looked at my father for a few […]
David Nicholl: It’s the BMJ wot won it, and the NHS should think like Tesco
In November, I had decided to challenge the impasse over the availability of an effective, but unlicensed, medication for Lambert Eaton Myasthenic syndrome by writing an FP10 for the cheaper unlicensed DAP on Channel 4 news. So what happened next? […]
Seye Abimbola: Reflections on the non-existent health system
Imagine a country without a health system; imagine the chaos, and inefficiency. In such a setting, the only form of health systems research necessary would be to generate evidence towards achieving universal coverage. Research will not only be about which interventions work, but where and how the interventions would be most optimal. Indeed, if we […]
Tony Falconer on leading healthier lives
The coalition government seems keen to engage with individuals and organisations, to help them help themselves lead healthier lives. This, we are told, will be done through encouragement and collaboration as outlined in a paper by the Cabinet Office behavioural insights team at the end of last year. […]
Lesley Henderson: Cot death in EastEnders
The current cot death story in BBC soap opera EastEnders has generated numerous complaints to the BBC and regulatory body Ofcom. One of the actors involved is now reportedly leaving the programme after being traumatised by her harrowing scenes and being abused by a member of the public while out walking with her family. Yet […]
Brian Deer: Piltdown medicine: The missing link between MMR and autism
On 21 November 1953, what is now Britain’s Natural History Museum stunned both science and the public by calling the fraud in the case of “Piltdown Man.” Fragments of fossilized jaw, skull, and tooth, unearthed shortly before World War I from gravel beds, 45 miles south of London, were not, as had been believed, the remains […]
Paul Hobday on another NHS reorganisation
This is about the 13th reorganisation I’ve seen in my 3 decades as a GP. Up until now I’ve put it all down to the fact that politicians can’t resist “fiddling,” and if we called all managers administrators instead, they’d administer rather than think they too have to introduce change for change’s sake or to […]
Aser García Rada: The value of one minute and delivery practices in Spain
It is a common Spanish tradition to play the “Christmas lottery” on December 22 — it is the most important draw of the year. Those that don’t win still keep some hope for the second lottery — the “kid’s lottery” on January 6th. But this year, as the front page headline of the Spanish journal […]