I am running the Dubai marathon in January to help raise money to pay for a 2 year old girl with cerebral palsy to go to the US for an operation. This will be my 14th marathon, and I don’t need much persuasion to run it—but am I doing the right thing in helping raise […]
Category: Guest writers
Scott Fraser: Work experience
After a hard morning interviewing enthusiastic young people who wanted to get into medical school I went for a coffee. These days this is a highly complicated business. Did I want a latte or a cappuccino, mocha or skinny, to go or with a shot, without chocolate, or with a small umbrella? I chose an […]
Saleyha Ahsan: Doctors on strike in Tripoli
An uneasy calm rests on Tripoli these days. A lack of effective security is having disruptive consequences. Recently local doctors took matters into their own hands by shutting down their hospital for ten days. Staff at the Central Hospital went back to work after ending the strike action on 20 December. It follows an incident where local […]
Kathi Apostolidis: Demolishing the Greek national healthcare system the amateur way
It takes vision, passion for healthcare, compassion for those who suffer, knowledge, a dedicated team of experts, commitment from all stakeholders, and experience of what it means to be a patient to plan a new strategy for the healthcare sector. These are all missing from what the Greek Ministry of Health has done for the […]
Mary Robinson: Protecting all women against cervical cancer – a question of justice
Every two minutes a woman dies of cervical cancer. Not surprisingly, 90 percent of these deaths occur in the poorest countries where women often do not have access to screening tests and treatment, or they are simply too expensive. Because of the lack of these services, vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes 70 percent […]
Chris Cox: Eva Michalak wins £4.5 million over discrimination
Expressions of disbelief in some newspapers about the size of the award of compensation for Dr Eva Michalak, who will apparently receive almost £4.5 million from the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust following her successful employment tribunal case, are rarely combined with equivalent expressions of outrage at the way in which she was treated by […]
Robin Stott: How to avoid an 18th COP out
Three separate images from the recent 17th conference of the parties (COP 17) in Durban, where I was as an observer on behalf of the climate and health council, frame my view of how we can rescue the COP process from its terminal decline. We might then have a better chance of rescuing the globe from […]
Clive Peedell: Campaigning against the NHS reforms: Bevan’s Run
Despite the widespread concern and opposition to the coalition government’s NHS reforms, the Health and Social Care Bill continues on its way towards royal assent, which is likely to happen in the spring of 2012. Opponents of the reforms, including the BMA, are concerned that the legislation will lead to increasing commercialisation, fragmentation, and privatisation […]
Maya Tickell-Painter: Where is health being included in the UN climate change negotiations?
Recently, you heard from Johnny Meldrum about why health professionals should care about climate change, and their role in the climate change negotiations. More than ever before, health professionals were present and engaging with the UN climate talks in Durban. During this conference there has been: a health summit, 6 official side events, two health-related […]
Seye Abimbola: David Cameron, homosexuality, and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa
“All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; and Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” — Arthur Schopenhauer Last week, the Nigerian senate signed a bill to outlaw homosexual marriage, homosexual association, and support for homosexual people. Same-sex couples who marry face up to 14 years each in […]