A major milestone passed in October this year, when Nigerians marked 50 years of independence. While our government celebrated, most Nigerians reflected on why the country had not fulfilled the great hopes engendered by the handover ceremonies in Lagos fifty years ago. […]
Category: Guest writers
Tony Waterston: A Turkish tale of children’s rights
Istanbul by train sounds a long way, but it offers a much lower carbon footprint than flying and was also a richer experience. Not quite the Orient Express, and the slow trundle through the Romanian countryside seemed interminable, but allowed plenty of reading time. And there were a few interesting encounters – which doesn’t happen […]
Jeremy Sare on Khat
There is no more baffled and frustrated group of law enforcers than the customs officers who oversee the massive and legal importation of khat into Britain. Although the plant’s value is measured purely in terms of its quality as a stimulant, the HMRC must, for the purpose of tax, deem khat as merely “salad.” […]
Martin Carroll on clean water and sanitation: leaders must walk the walk, talk the talk
We often refer to water as “the stuff of life.” Without water, our cells would shrivel and die, our brain function would be progressively impaired, and we would eventually find it impossible to expel harmful toxins. The same applies to the world around us – the “global skin” in which we live. Without clean water […]
Chris Ham: Join the debate over the future of NHS managers
Today, The King’s Fund launches a new commission on leadership and management in the NHS. The NHS is a complex organisation employing more than 1 million people and spending more than £100 billion. It is a system that requires sound management – rather than traditional administration – and leadership at every level. […]
Andrew Mitchell: The choice for women
In the past 24 hours, 980 women will have died in pregnancy and childbirth. The risk of a woman in the UK dying from maternal causes is only 1 in 8,200 during her lifetime. In Sierra Leone, that risk becomes 1 in 8. […]
Paivi Hietanen on being a stranger at the BMJ
Observations by the editor of the Finnish Medical Journal (FMJ) When leaving Helsinki I had ambiguous feelings. Two books from my childhood came to mind, The Bear Who Always Said “No” and Turre, The Ship Dog. The bear was thrown out of his home and his subsequent lonely journey through foreign villages inhabited by unfriendly […]
Desmond O’Neill: Social networking, telemedicine, and stroke
Some medical technologies creep up on you, some arrive with a bang. In internal medicine much of the change – electronic laboratory reporting, digital imaging – is gradualist and steered by other disciplines, and physicians are grateful if relatively passive users. On the other hand, telemedicine for stroke thrombolysis was a radical step for both […]
Douglas Altman: When one word is enough (Blood and Lamborghinis)
Long before Top Gear, for a while in my twenties (and for the only time in my life) I regularly bought a car magazine called, well, Car. The magazine was quite unlike the staid competitors, which I had seen occasionally, probably mainly in doctors’ waiting rooms. Car probably appealed to the younger reader, with test […]
Alison Spurrier: Does the nurse that makes a difference need to be educated to degree level?
A recent editorial in the BMJ discusses mandatory graduate entry to nursing in England. Does the nurse that makes a difference need to be educated to degree level? This question is not straightforward due to the complex relationships that nurses enjoy with their patients and the multi faceted nature of nursing. […]