‘Most doctors and nurses will have a deep well of patient stories – examples of great fortitude and its converse. It is clear to any clinician that some patients either feel their symptoms (or report them) more than others. […]
Maham Khan: Reporter, editor, author, blogger – my time as a Clegg Scholar
I began my eight weeks a total novice with only a small amount of previous writing and editing experience. Never did I imagine I would leave as all of the above. The Clegg scholarship is an eight week work experience placement at the BMJ offices in London and the only scholarship of its kind. Whilst […]
Desmond O’Neill: One hundred years of flautitude
No geriatrician could pass up on the opportunity: a performance of a flute concerto written by a living composer in his 100th year by one of the greatest orchestras in the world, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It took place without any formal linkage to the almost 4,000 delegates attending the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) […]
Martin McShane: Integrated reflections continued
Following our visit to Kaiser Permanente, we travelled north to Seattle and visited the Virginia Mason hospital and Group Health. Linked but distinct, the relationship between the two provided a contrast to Kaiser Permanente – though, as organisations seeking integrated care, there were common themes. We spent a day at Group Health and yet again […]
Nigel Hawkes: Andrew Lansley on your bedside TV
We know that many people occupying hospital beds ought not to be there, either because their earlier care has failed to keep them out or because they can’t be discharged for lack of anywhere to go. But is it quite fair to hasten their departure by subjecting them to all-day Andrew Lansley on their bedside […]
Edward Davies: The health service that cried wolf
Too much hysteria is clouding reasonable criticism If you watched Channel 4 news last night, you could only come away with the impression that the government is waging a secret war to privatise the entire NHS. You see, Channel 4 were “exclusively” “leaked” “proof” that “the government is planning to privatise the NHS.” The proof […]
Richard Smith: Can information technology improve healthcare?
I doubt that anybody within airlines, financial services, or manufacturing goes to meetings to debate whether information technology can improve what they do. It already has. But in healthcare we’ve grown very sceptical about information technology. In fact information technology already has improved healthcare and much of what is done now could not be done […]
Martin McShane: Integrated reflections
Sir William Osler advocated the concept of a “quinquennial brain dusting“: which was my justification for taking a week out to visit some integrated care organisations on the West Coast of the USA, with a group from the NHS. I know we feel challenged in the UK, but the scale and nature of the challenge […]
Aser Garcia Rada: Co-payments and privatisation in Spain
Some time ago I wrote a letter to the Spanish daily El Mundo, saying that co-payments –an extra charge for accessing medical services in the public healthcare system, should be considered as a measure to help the public system. Co-payments have traditionally been a forbidden issue among politicians as they amount to paying twice for something we […]
Stephen Ginn: Occupy London
Established on 15 October outside St Paul’s and watched over by a statue of Queen Victoria, the Occupy London Stock Exchange (LSX) camp continues its controversial settlement in central London. Paul, a doctor whose day job is as a sexual health specialist in South London, shows me around. For a movement with no apparent leadership, […]