This blog was commissioned following a debate on assisted dying at the BMA ARM. It is part of a collection of blogs on the topic. Jacky Davis argues that the BMA should move to a neutral position on assisted dying. Sheila Hollins et al argue that the BMA is right to reject a neutral position. In […]
Basil Porter: Deadly silence
I recently returned from a fiftieth anniversary reunion of our Witwatersrand Medical School graduating class in Johannesburg, South Africa. Many had spent their careers outside of South Africa, most in the USA, Canada, Israel and the UK. During formal sessions, people were asked to talk about our student days and their subsequent lives. A few […]
Farewell to DECC: What does its closure mean for the UK’s commitment to tackling climate change?
In among all the recent political developments, it may have been easy to miss that the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) became the latest fatality of the Cabinet reshuffle. DECC has been folded into the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), to now become the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial […]
Mara Evans blogs from a maternity ward in South Sudan
The day was hot and quiet. Ward rounds had finished and the local midwife and I were waiting on a woman’s seventh baby. The other midwife had just examined our labouring patient and told me she was dilating well at seven centimetres. Generally, when a person is giving birth to their seventh baby things can […]
Chris Simms: The Iraq war, Chilcot, and cherry picking data: How to find a way forward?
The first week of July 2016 was a week to remember. A cluster of war related stories dominated the media, including the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme (1 July), the death of Elie Weisel on 2 July, on 3 July there was the deadliest bombing in Bagdad since 2003, three days later we had the release […]
Clare Marx: Making the best of Brexit for the NHS
Change, challenges, setbacks, and advances are the hallmarks of modern medical careers. We can either let “Brexit” type moments consume us, whispering from the sidelines, or show the leadership necessary to deal with the uncertainty which now confronts us. It is in this latter spirit that I believe the NHS must respond to leaving the […]
Deborah Kirkham: Mind the technology gap—how can the NHS bridge it?
I find the exhibition halls at conferences fascinating. They provide an interface between private and public sector which many clinicians are not exposed to in their day to day work. There’s the private companies with their baristas and artisan coffee beans; a stand that’s bigger than the square footage of an average UK home, and […]
Richard Smith: What are the causes of health?
Ask doctors for the causes of heart failure or any disease, and answers will pour from them. Ask them about the causes of health or wellbeing, and they will go blank. Doctors are trained to think about disease not health. Sir Harry Burns, formerly chief medical officer for Scotland, asks doctors about the causes of […]
Adrian James: Why mental health treatment should only ever be “patient-first”
Earlier this month I spoke at a conference on Psychological Therapies for Severe and Prolonged Mental Illness in London. I was one of only two psychiatrists on the bill, among many psychologists putting forward a “therapies first” approach to the treatment of severe mental health problems. As I said at the conference, I have a problem […]
Rosamund Snow: What makes a real patient?
A few years ago I applied for a grant to study my own long term condition. I started out as Ms Snow, ashamed of saying the name of my disease, and ended up Dr Snow, the type 1 diabetic, knowing a lot more about research and academia than I ever thought I would. I realised […]