I’ve just spent one day at Leicester General Hospital. I worked there in 1980, my first SHO job in general surgery. 105 appendicectomies performed by myself in six months. Those were the days! I did not recognise the hospital at all. So much building and development. My father was having some scans so I went […]
Category: Guest writers
Nataly Kelly: The value of a single word
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is a word worth? It seems difficult to quantify. Yet, 30 years ago, a Florida hospital was faced with that very question. In 1980, 18 year old Willie Ramirez was admitted into the hospital. Spanish speaking family members trying to explain his symptoms said that […]
Karyn Moshal on CHIVA Africa
In 2004, when the South African antiretroviral programme to tackle the HIV pandemic finally began, the concern turned to the management of children – the group that is always left behind. […]
Neil Snowise: Medical breakthroughs…what would you choose?
If you had to choose the major medical breakthroughs of the last century, how easy would this be and what would you select? This was the challenge for the Royal Mail who are about to issue six UK stamps to celebrate British medical breakthroughs. They’ve chosen varied topics which demonstrate the wealth and diversity of British […]
Olivia Roberts: UK public prefers WHO to Dr Who
You would think that Matt Smith and David Tennant, of popular television programme Dr Who, would have a few more fans in the UK than Dr Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO). But apparently not according to the results from the UK Public Opinion Monitor set up by the Institute of […]
Fabio Turone on colleagues fighting in Sicily
When you hear that a woman lost her uterus, and her newborn is in a coma because two obstetrician gynaecologists went into a fistfight in the delivery room of a university hospital in Sicily, your first thought is, “I can’t believe it.” Then the BMJ calls, and you must try to find a meaningful way to […]
Tony Waterston: ICAN, you can, we can: banning the bomb in Basel
Being a member of a Nobel peace prize-winning organisation confers pride but not necessarily a sense of direction. Both were overwhelmingly present at the 19th Congress of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Basel, which was attended by a record number of doctors and medical students from North and South America, Europe, […]
Kashif Shafique and colleagues on the public health challenges of the flood in Pakistan
As average global temperatures rise, the stability of the monsoon rainfall, over the past century, has been uncertain. It has long been expected in South Asian regions that heavy rain is going to cause an increasing amount of problems. The recent devastating and unprecedented rainfall during July 2010 and early August 2010, hit all the […]
Anjum Khan on HIV and TB in Uganda
Uganda is the colour blue, that intense, clear sky. Uganda is green; bright, vivid trees swimming with life. Uganda is red, crumbling soil everywhere. Some things stay with me; the insistent caw of the gaa-gaa bird, the silent old gum trees near the hospital, the eternal curiosity of the children. […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Good Health at Low Cost: the importance of political commitment
Almost any student of global public health will be familiar with the seminal work Good Health at Low Cost. In honor of the 25th anniversary of the release of the original book, the Rockefeller Foundation has commissioned an updated version of the book that includes five new countries or states: Ethiopia, Tamil Nadu, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand […]