When a politician speaks with passion and commitment about social inequality, I listen. When it is the chairperson of the Committee for Health, Social Services, and Public Safety, I listen carefully. Our practice is in an area internationally recognised as socially deprived, and, if politicians took a genuine interest and were prepared to invest resources, […]
Partha Kar: The consultant of the future
Type “define an NHS consultant” into Google and you’ll get more than 5 million results—none of which actually crystallises what the role involves. It’s a term that’s ever more shrouded in ambiguity as the NHS morphs and changes while moving into the unknown future. […]
Desmond O’Neill: Lessons of the Francis Report are not just confined to the NHS
One of the most striking theatre productions I have ever witnessed was a riotous Polish play called Birthrate, the highlight of the 1981 Dublin Theatre Festival. Starting with a stage set resembling a train compartment, all was sweetness and light as the first few passengers entered, ceding place politely to a mother and baby. However, […]
Katy Cooper: NCDs, MDGs, and SDGs – latest update
This is an update of an earlier blog (15 November 2012 – here), which described what is happening around the global framework on non-communicable diseases, and how NCDs link into discussions on the successors to the Millennium Development Goals (due to expire in 2015) and the proposed new set of Sustainable Development Goals (as proposed […]
Marge Berer: Depo Provera
The recent news that Ethiopian Jewish women had been given the injectable contraceptive Depo Provera without their knowledge or consent awakened a strong feeling of déjà vu for me. When I came into the field of reproductive health, 35 years ago, Depo Provera had just come onto the market. There were far fewer contraceptive methods available […]
Penny Campling: How will shame play out in the wake of the Francis report?
One word that keeps being used in response to the Francis report into failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is “shame.” Interestingly, it seems to be used more than “guilt” and most certainly more than “remorse.” This is worrying because shame is particularly hard to process, an emotion that typically lurks around in individuals and organisations, […]
Vivienne Nathanson: An update on Cyril Karabus
In August 2012 the retired South African paediatrician, Professor Cyril Karabus, was detained as he passed through Dubai airport on his way home from a family wedding in Canada. When I wrote an editorial on this in October last year, I outlined the charges against him. Around that time he was finally freed from the […]
David Payne: Horsemeat and the Food Standards Agency
The horsemeat scandal has triggered calls for the UK’s food safety watchdog to have stronger regulatory powers. The Food Standards Agency was stripped of its nutrition and labelling roles in a cull of quangoes shortly after the coalition government entered office in 2010. Isn’t it time they were returned, to restore public confidence in the […]
Suchita Shah: The lamb’s mother and the room of hope
A day in the life of a Chilean family doctor She wipes her eyes with the backs of her hands. A thin circle of white skin against the dark tan of her left ring finger is the only visible sign of her recent loss. She sits in the ‘sala de espera’. Esperar, in Spanish, means […]
Krishnan Ganapathy: Is surgery not more than stitching and cutting ?
The genesis for this blog was listening to 34 fascinating, highly technical lectures including “How I do it” sessions at an international neurosurgical update for young neurosurgeons. Operating theatres resembled the control room of the Mars mission. As one trained in the BC era (Before Computers = Before Christ) it is obvious to me that surgery is changing. […]