A nationwide strike of government employees started last week here in South Africa and looks to have serious repercussions for the health care sector. I am a semi-retired general practitioner but have sessions looking after three of the psychogeriatric wards at our local psychiatric hospital. The patients are mostly very vulnerable elderly patients on long term medication. […]
Category: Guest writers
Chris Ham: The first 100 days of the coalition government
The coalition government has moved quickly in its first 100 days to set out its plans for the NHS in England. Although ministers have stressed that these plans build on Labour’s health reforms, in reality they are much more radical. Tony Blair’s policies may have paved the way for choice and competition to play a […]
Martin McShane: Is there such a thing as evidence based management?
I grew up as a clinician during an era when evidence-based medicine, as a concept, penetrated the consciousness of the professions. Nowadays, one of my favourite meetings, which I chair, is PACEF (a pan health community Prescribing and Clinical Effectiveness Forum). It is regularly attended by clinicians, including GPs and consultants, to dissect, debate and […]
Vasiliy Vlassov on the heatwave in Russia
The hot weather in central Russia this year has been unprecedented. It has been the hottest summer since records began in 1890, and as a result hundreds of forest fires have swept across woodland areas. Moscow, the most visible part of the country to the outside world, has been covered in a blanket of smog […]
Bushra Azam on doctors fasting over Ramadan
This year the holy month of Ramadan starts on the 11 August. It’s a challenging time of the year for many Muslims, particularly doctors in the NHS. I have been fasting for many years since a young age, but the fast became very challenging when I started my career as a doctor and the challenge […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: The rationale against ORS fortified with zinc
The SUZY Project aims to introduce dispersible zinc tablets as a treatment for diarrhoea in young children in Bangladesh. Due to my role in the project, I frequently receive questions from people embarking on a zinc scale up in their own country or catchment area. […]
Rachel Palmer: Dedication and inspiration in Niger
During the last eight weeks, while I’ve been in Niger, I’ve often been overwhelmed by the scale of the problems people face here. It’s not just the current food crisis and the number of people who are going hungry (7.9 million) now but also what the future has in store. […]
Julian Sheather: Are doctors better people?
It’s an odd question I know, but bear with me. It was prompted by a book I picked up again recently, “Open Skies,” a collection of Somerset landscapes by the war photographer Don McCullin. McCullin is arguably the best known war photographer of his generation, and has taken some of that generation’s most iconic war […]
Tony Waterston: Going against the grain in Gaza
At a time when the news coming out from Gaza is deeply depressing, it is good to report some entirely positive developments in relation to paediatric teaching. Ten years ago, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health tried to establish its teaching programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. This was due to commence in […]
Jeremy Sare on NRG1
The Fly Agaric mushroom, depicted in many a book of fairytales, is a powerful hallucinogen but still perfectly legal. The reason why successive governments have not sought to ban it is because its effects are so deeply unpleasant, even the most avid “stoner” does not want to take it. At least, not more than once. […]