Occasionally, when talking to women who have experienced an adverse outcome, I come across someone who takes me completely by surprise with their kindness and generosity. These are people who entered pregnancy expecting only one outcome, and exited with a completely different one—their dreams in shreds. And yet these amazing people can ask how a […]
Category: Guest writers
Jonathan A Michaels: Bridging the gap between academics and practitioners
During my career as a clinical academic I have seen considerable changes to the clinical, academic, and financial structures within the NHS associated with the introduction of evidence-based practice and elaborate systems for evaluating and recommending on the use of healthcare technologies. [1] Whilst the improved use of research evidence and explicit consideration of the […]
Katherine McKenzie: Supporting human rights, one patient at a time
I saw the first asylum seeker around ten years ago in my clinic. He came from a country with an autocratic president against whom he had peacefully protested. The government would not accept dissent from its citizens and they arrested, detained, and tortured him. He was released, but he was told that he would be […]
Nick Fahy: Can real inter-sectoral working address deep-seated inequalities?
Many doctors will have had the frustration of dealing with health problems that are actually the result of much more deep-seated social inequalities, some with their roots going all the way back to education and childhood. But how do we avoid just putting plasters on these underlying problems? How do we address these wider issues […]
Helen Wood: End of life care and intracranial haemorrhage
As a care of the elderly registrar currently working in a district general hospital, I am very familiar with the following story, and it is likely to be recognised by others who take part in the on-call medical take, as well as those who work in accident and emergency, neurosurgery, and palliative medicine. It is […]
Sarah Radcliffe: A future NHS that meets the needs of people living with HIV
What does it mean to describe HIV as a long-term condition (LTC)? It has become common terminology in policy and media discussions, but the use of this phrase within NHS commissioning can still make some people living with HIV and some specialist clinicians uneasy. The unease stems mainly from the concern that calling HIV a […]
Amy Webster: Engaging trainees in quality improvement
NHS improvement has recently published a document entitled “Developing people—improving care.” [1] This outlines a framework to guide action on developing leadership in the NHS, with a focus on delivering improvement. The framework outlines five conditions common to high quality systems that “interact to produce a culture of continuous learning and improvement.” I read with […]
Niro Kumar: Doctors and dating apps
Shift patterns and long hours have detrimental effects on doctors’ social and romantic lives. While dating other medics solves this conundrum for some, many junior (and senior) doctors still prefer dating outside the profession. Around the world 91 million people use dating apps and websites. This provides a network of non-medics for social interaction and […]
Daniel Whitney: Mental health has still not achieved “parity of esteem”—even among some medical professionals
It’s late morning; little piles of lists and notes from assessments carried out in the past 24 hours are littered between me and the PC. The assorted paraphernalia that seems to accumulate around me after a night on-call clutters my surroundings: a dictaphone, the British National Formulary, Maudsley guidelines, and the semi-completed audit I glance at […]
Lorraine Atkinson: Preventing prison suicides
2016 will be remembered for many reasons. I will remember it as the worst year on record for the number of prisoners who have taken their own lives in prisons in England and Wales. More than 100 people have died by suicide in prison since the beginning of 2016. There are five weeks remaining yet […]