Emergency general surgery (EGS) in England is facing a number of challenges, including workforce, training, and operational issues. Together these have led to wide national variation in outcomes. For example, mortality for emergency laparotomy can range from 3.6 to 41.7 per cent depending on location of treatment; [1] but establishing effective ways to address such […]
Category: Guest writers
Claudia Pagliari et al: Smartening-up NHS workforce management with IT
Media revelations of dramatic unexpected shortages in NHS nursing capacity, excessive dependence on overseas recruitment and costly agency staff (often NHS workers doing private shifts) are contributing to the public perception of a health service that doesn’t know how to effectively plan and manage its workforce. […]
Peter Lees: “The doctors’ mess is dead, long live the doctors’ mess”
I regret not fighting harder for the maintenance of the doctors’ mess. Sure we fought tooth and nail in the late seventies and early eighties when we perceived that the administration (as it was then called) had its eyes on our central prime real estate. We always won because we were united, we valued the […]
Daniel Sokol: The messiness of medicine
Last week I attended a conference for surgeons. In the hall, a poster described the case of a neurology patient who had, literally, inhaled a chicken sandwich. The surgeon, with great ingenuity, combined instruments to suction the mushy chicken embedded in the patient’s lungs. Next to the poster stood a timid medical student, one of […]
Shakir Mustafa: A return to Nepal after the earthquake
In the immediate aftermath of last year’s earthquake in Nepal I took part in an emergency mission. A few weeks later we returned for an aid and education mission. And now, here we are again, in Dharan, East Nepal for another mission to support local doctors and empower them to implement change and drive healthcare […]
Michelle White on Mercy Ships—providing free and safe surgery to some of the poorest parts of the world
Millions of people face financial ruin to afford surgery. Five billion to be precise, that’s how many people in the world currently have to weigh up the dilemma of financial ruin to afford surgery. After regularly volunteering for a couple of weeks every year, in 2012 I decided to give up my full time job […]
Elizabeth Atherton and Josephine Head: How environmentally sustainable are the UK’s new dietary guidelines?
Last week saw the launch of the Eatwell Guide—the UK’s official food guide to healthy diets. Astonishingly, despite major changes in eating habits and advances in nutrition science, this is the first review of these guidelines since their original publication 20 years ago. While the update—prompted by expert recommendations on sugar—is long overdue and welcomed, it […]
Andy Cowper: How to march your troops back down again
As another bout of industrial action concludes in the junior doctors’ dispute, the BMA junior doctors’ committee leadership has won outright. Their leaders were carried in triumph down Whitehall, celebrating Jeremy Hunt’s resignation as Health Secretary over the issue. “Jerexit” deepened the Government’s split over Europe, and a subsequent wave of defections to UKIP destroyed […]
Lindsey Hines and Elle Wadsworth: Would the UK benefit from a regulated cannabis market?
The Liberal Democrats have announced a proposal for cannabis law reform in the UK. It is not without precedent, coming at a time of global change in how governments respond to cannabis use, and is not a niche issue. Government figures show over 6% of the UK population used […]
Jane Feinmann: Addressing malnutrition
Doctors have faced up to the challenge of treating obesity. Is it now time to address that other major weight disorder—malnutrition? Less common in the general population than obesity, malnutrition is an ever-present health risk for older people—with one in ten over 65s either already suffering or at risk of becoming under-nourished, according to a […]