As with most things in life, the best solutions are often the most simple, and with retrospect, they were glaringly obvious. The resumption of talks between the BMA and the government was facilitated by our royal colleges suggesting nothing more complicated than a five day pause. A ceasefire called for by the natural mediators. What […]
Rachel Clarke: Junior doctors’ dispute—Jeremy Hunt musn’t ignore doctors’ genuine concerns
It’s ironic, isn’t it? Even as last ditch truce talks to settle the junior doctors’ dispute got underway this week, UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt has come under fire yet again for going to war with doctors on the flimsiest of pretexts. Yesterday, a stroke physician from Oxford University, Professor Peter Rothwell, talked about research that […]
Ellen Broad and Tom Sasse: Google deep in trust issues around use of UK patient data
We all need different kinds of medical care at different points in our lives. When we interact with our GPs and healthcare providers, we hope that our doctors and nurses know everything they need to know to help us get better. We want to get the best possible care and we want the experience to […]
Neena Modi: How might the junior doctors’ dispute be resolved?
After months of stalemate, a brief pause has been suggested so that both sides in the junior doctors’ dispute can take a deep breath, and get back to talking. How might this pan out? Let’s start by being quite clear: Paediatricians have always delivered a 24/7 service and the government’s own equality assessment shows that […]
David Oliver: A dispute played out via soundbites and spin cannot end well for services
I write this a few hours after the BMA agreed that it would take up the offer of renewed contract talks with the government, brokered by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. The government have in turn agreed a temporary suspension of imposition. PR has coloured the whole saga of the contract stand-off. What had […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—9 May 2016
NEJM 5 May 2016 Vol 374 Cholera: still not defeated 1723 Endemic cholera is one of those diseases that remind us how unequal the world still is. Cholera from the Indian subcontinent swept Europe in the 1820s and 30s but had virtually disappeared a few decades later, due to improvements in our water supply. Yet […]
William Cayley: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” One commonly hears the mournful refrain that American healthcare is “broken”—whether demonstrated by reports “hospitals have been gaming the system to make their re-admission numbers look good,” the paradox that our escalating healthcare expenditures produce only average life expectancy outcomes, or (what may seem more mundane to policy […]
Junior doctors’ dispute: pause is welcome but fundamental problems remain
A five day pause in work to introduce a new contract for junior doctors could be a welcome opportunity for both sides to engage meaningfully on the outstanding issues of disagreement. But it would do little to quell the anger that led junior doctors to the first all out strike in the history of the […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Recognising weasel words
To recap. A weasel word is defined in the OED as “an equivocating or ambiguous word, which takes away the force or meaning of the concept being expressed”. “I can suck melancholy out of a song,” says Shakespeare’s Jaques in As You Like It (picture), “as a weasel sucks eggs.” The phrase “weasel words” was […]
Yogesh Jain, R Srivatsan, and Antony Kollannur: Heatwave in India
Severe heat wave conditions have been reported across India through the month of April this year. The situation has been especially severe in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamilnadu. Most affected are the vulnerable poor, the elderly, and those with health complications. We spoke to some people to see how they cope with the heat: “We […]