This year, those participants at the European Health Forum Gastein who were not too busy moving from one session to another, too eager to rub shoulders with top level speakers, or too absorbed in the beautiful landscape, could witness a new reality: refugees had arrived in Bad Hofgastein. There are 55 of them, 25 of […]
Category: Guest writers
Henry Murphy: The impact of the junior doctor’s protest march
I couldn’t sleep yesterday morning. Something was wrong. On Saturday I joined 20 000 people marching in protest at the government’s threats to impose a new contract on all doctors below consultant level. Police in riot vans were parked on Parliament Square, and were met with smiling parents, pushchairs, and a lot of stickers. A helicopter circled […]
Neel Sharma: Selection into medical postgraduate training requires a fair and balanced approach
Prober et al recently voiced their concerns of an over reliance on USMLE step 1 scores in determining residency posts in the States. They highlighted its predominantly scientific or clinical content, the fact that the more competitive specialties require higher scores, the added stress and anxiety faced by learners to score well, and the costs […]
Barry Main et al: Time to make research findings CRYSTAL clear?
By BG Main, NS Blencowe, and JM Blazeby. Hardly a day goes by without a prominent health story appearing in the press or other media. Headline-grabbing statements about “miracle” breakthroughs or “scare” stories are beloved of journalists, readers, and politicians alike. But hidden behind the headline is often a fundamental misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the […]
Ahmed Rashid on #RCGPAC 2015: We’re in it together
At the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) annual conference in 2014, the chair of council, Maureen Baker, likened UK general practice to a dam that was at bursting point. The metaphor was a fitting one and there was a sense amongst the Liverpool audience of GPs that it captured the enormous pressure that they […]
Damian Roland: The power of social media to help clinicians and patients
In a pub in Dublin in 2012, Mike Cadogan, an Australian emergency physician coined a term that would take social media by storm. Free Open Access Meducation (FOAM) and its accompanying hashtag #FOAMed would become synonymous with the output of enterprising emergency and critical care doctors. They would write blogs on anything from procedural techniques […]
Scarlett McNally: Challenging the stereotype of a surgeon
The social media campaign #ilooklikeasurgeon highlighted just how many women surgeons there are working in the UK and around the world. Posting photos of themselves with the caption, “I look like a surgeon,” these women were challenging outdated stereotypes, so often associated with our profession. They were sending a very powerful message to young women […]
Katherine Sleeman: After Neuberger and NICE, what next?
Last month, NICE published new draft guidance on the care of dying adults. The extensive media coverage that followed reflects the context in which it was developed: the guidance serves partly to fill the gap left by the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Care of the Dying (LCP), which was phased out in a storm […]
Kamal R Mahtani: General practice clinical pharmacists: an opportunity to be innovative or cynical?
Declining resources, an ageing population, multi-morbidity and rising demands are just some of the reasons adding to an unsustainable workload in general practice. As the RCGP point out in their discussion paper, there is an urgent need to develop strategies that can successfully reduce the workload on general practice while minimising the risk to patients. […]
Rubin Minhas: “Die Fluechtlinge”—the refugees
There is a scene in Richard Attenborough’s film “Gandhi” where rows of non-violent protestors face up to a platoon of soldiers, only to be methodically clubbed to the ground. Their wives and families then drag their broken and battered bodies away, another row advances and the sickening spectacle repeats itself, driven on by senseless logic. […]