Four aboriginal boys, two aged 8 and two aged 9, bolted midday from their school, half-clad, mid-winter, to make the 12 mile trek to their families in Nautley Reserve. When they were found the next day in the slush-ice on Lake Fraser less than a mile from home—arms wrapped around one another in a frozen embrace—few […]
Suzanne Gordon: The future of the Veteran’s Health Administration
By the end of this year, the US will have a new president as well some new members of Congress. The results of the 2016 election will not only effect the further implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), but the future of the country’s largest healthcare system—the Veteran’s Health Administration. That’s because most of […]
Vickie Hawkins: “Your enemy’s doctor is not your enemy. Hospitals are not targets”
Late on Wednesday night two barrel bombs fell on buildings surrounding the hospital of Al Quds hospital in Aleppo, Northern Syria. As tens of wounded were being rushed to the emergency room (ER) for treatment, a third barrel bomb fell directly at the entrance to the ER, killing and injuring staff and patients. The building […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Weasel words
It has been reported that Department of Health lawyers have said that the secretary of state for health, known to us as the SoSH or the Cunctator, never intended to “impose” a contract on the junior hospital doctors, only that the contract would be “introduced” from August (as quoted in the Independent on 18 April). […]
Kawaldip Sehmi: The patient-centred approach of the Hillsborough inquest
Respecting the families’ euphoria and personal grief, I delayed this blog post on the Hillsborough inquest verdicts (the verdict came at lunchtime 26 April 2016). Let them savour their day in court, and well done to all on the Justice For The 96 campaign, especially Michael Mansfield QC, who has now got into a bit […]
Thomas Macaulay: Senior doctors’ opinions on the junior doctors’ strike
The letters pages of British broadcasts last week were inundated with the views of doctors on the strike of their junior colleagues. Most were united in their criticism of the misleading media coverage. Writing to The Guardian, Dr Michael Maier described the reporting as “sensational and inaccurate” with particular reproval reserved for the description of […]
David Oliver: Are we recreating the conditions that led to the Mid Staffs scandal and Francis inquiries?
I am worried that we are heading right back to the very conditions that led to the Francis inquiries, losing any progress we have gained on the back of them. In health, as in many industries, it often takes a major incident or scandal to prevent more from occurring in the future. But let’s not […]
Joseph O’Keeffe: The junior doctors’ strike—voices from the ward
Junior doctors are arguing that the contract changes compromise patient safety. I agree. But do those we treat? It’s hard to tell. Social media appears dominated by the junior doctors, whereas the newspapers and the broadcasters merely present a succession of politicians and “experts.” The patient’s voice seems lost amidst the acrimony between the Department […]
Jane Parry: Organ donation is an emotive topic, and rightly so
Recently, there was a very moving piece in The Guardian about a doctor’s experience of a family donating their dead child’s organs for transplant. It got me thinking about organ transplantation here in Asia, specifically in Singapore, and why donation rates there are so low. Singapore has an opt-out organ donation policy: a 2009 amendment […]
Duncan Steele: To strike or not to strike
To strike or not to strike, that is the question we have all asked ourselves over the last few months. To walk away from our patients, albeit to leave them in the care of some of the most qualified doctors in the world, is an incredibly difficult and tormenting decision. The contractual intricacies are complex. […]