It’s not surprising that the word “patient” makes some activists uncomfortable. The Latin root patiens (“he who suffers”) suggests passivity, particularly when paired with doctore (“he who teaches”). Small wonder, then, that physicians have traditionally viewed patient-centeredness as their providing “caring custody” while acting as “rational agents” on patients’ behalf. (1) […]
Category: Guest writers
John Davies: Looking after athletes in Rio
A few days ago I was in nominal charge of the second field of play team which is situated after the finishing line of the track. The finishing line is fixed as it has all the photo and electronic equipment on it, and starts are arranged variously according to the event’s length. I say I was […]
Peter Thomson: Would revoking the European Working Time Directive improve surgical training?
The President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England suggested recently that leaving the EU will allow surgeons to undergo thousands of hours of extra training. Following the Brexit result, we are faced with the potential revoking of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD). The anti-EWTD-ers may now see their dreams come true, and […]
Tony Woolfson: How can we fill vacant consultant posts?
A Public Accounts Committee report suggested that the large number of unfilled consultant posts was due to bad workforce planning. Hardly surprising really. Obviously true, but not really the point. If we are to engage with and solve the problem, we need to look at what lies beneath. Having been involved with doctors’ careers since […]
Ara Darzi: Workload fears over online patient records
England was the first country in the world to enable patients to book GP appointments, order prescriptions, and access their medical records online Since April 2016, all practices have been required to give patients online access to a summary of their medical history, including information on drugs they are taking, the illnesses, allergies, immunisations, and […]
Narinder Kapur: Name badges and job titles to keep Kate Granger’s legacy alive
The campaign by the late Kate Granger helped to raise the profile of staff introducing themselves to patients by saying their name. Words used in healthcare matter. Communication lapses are one of the major sources of error in patient safety. Confusing drug labels can be fatal. Yet we often fail at the simplest level of using names […]
John Davies: Treating patients at the Rio Olympics
After several days when I could tourist around the Games and Rio, while the Olympic stadium was converted from a football to a track and field venue, I was back with the medical team this weekend, keeping a close eye on the high jump part of the women’s Heptathlon. Team GB had two competitors, Jessica […]
Miriam Fine-Goulden: How we talk about women leaders
It feels like there has never been a better time to be a woman in leadership: we have a female prime minister following a two-woman contest; a female Scottish first minister; the first woman in US history to be nominated for president by any major party; women heading up the most influential economy in Europe […]
Niall Dickson: Planned changes to the UK medical register
A study commissioned by the General Medical Council (GMC) last year found that the current UK register provides limited information compared with those in other countries. This is not surprising. The first UK register, introduced in 1859, was a hardback tome for patients to check whether practitioners in medicine and surgery had the qualifications and […]
The Sick of the Fringe: Edinburgh 2016
The Edinburgh festivals are in full flow, and there is a wealth of wonderful health and medicine related events to see and do. From a show about incontinence that will gain you CPD points for attending, to a one-to-one performance in darkness that explores the science of seeing, to comedies about bodies, and plenty of work about mental […]