According to a recent article in the Guardian newspaper I’ve worked in the two most polluting buildings in the UK. Over the course of one year the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel was responsible for the emission of 46,218 tonnes of CO2, (rated G). Cambridge’s Addenbrooke’s hospital – in whose A&E department I worked – […]
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Joe Collier on big pharma vs the mobile phone: let battle commence
I strongly believe we are heading for one almighty battle. Millions and millions of pounds have been spent by the drugs industry in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Much more money is being reaped as drugs (often of marginal benefit) are used in its management worldwide. With this scenario all was looking secure for the […]
Peter Lapsley on media bandwagons
When asked whether they shape public opinion or reflect it, journalists working for national news media tend to affect wide-eyed innocence, insisting that they simply report the facts and that it is for their readers, listeners and viewers to reach their own conclusions. The dimmest of them may believe such nonsense; when the brighter amongst […]
Emily Spry on wizards and wheelbarrows
Worryingly, Freetown is starting to look normal. Clearly, this needs correction. So, on the long commute back from the hospital on Friday, I tried to look again with fresh eyes and note down some of the sights for you. […]
Louise Kenny’s drawer of misunderstanding
A few years ago I lived in a flat with a dear friend Hannah, who like me is a collector of junk and disastrous at keeping things such like wires, lids, buttons, remote controls where they should be kept. For example, I would ask: “What does this cable do?” Hannah: “No idea, but maybe we […]
David Pencheon: Not waving but talking
You may be aware that the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), BMJ Editor-in-Chief Fiona Godlee, and the Campaign for Greener Healthcare hosted a meeting of health professionals at the RCN on Saturday as part of the Wave demonstration. Here’s my contribution: “The time is now. As health professionals we have a duty of care, a […]
Emily Spry as a do-gooding know it all in Sierra Leone
I feel as if I have been in some kind of altered state since I arrived in Freetown ten weeks ago. After an extended high, where I was bursting with ideas and determination, one day this week I suddenly ran out of steam and ground to a halt. […]
Tony Waterston on a health movement at the Wave
At the weekend we attended the most profound and moving event for health progress that we can remember. This took place at the Royal College of Nursing – founded in 1916 in the middle of the most awful war of the last century, and now at the heart of change in which nurses are in […]
Finca bout it, says Louise Kenny
Guatemalan coffee is revered as a most tasty brew throughout the world. I’ve even read reports from connoisseur “cuppers,” or coffee tasters, about it being a “kaleidoscope” coffee. Apparently that’s a good thing, and certainly something the Guatemalans are proud of. […]
Emily Spry on infant mortality in Sierra Leone
A relatively newly-posted medical officer told me how she resisted returning to the children’s hospital after her three month stint here as a house officer last year. “It was so awful when the children died, and they died all the time. I went home and cried every night.” If you believe the stats (which are […]