Last week, I had dinner with a member of the House of Lords, but he was wearing shorts and walking boots, not ermine, and I was wearing a sundress and plenty of mosquito repellent. Why might this be of interest to BMJ readers? Well, the Lord in question (Lord Bates of Langbaurgh) is walking 4000 […]
Richard Smith: Let the tobacco company see the data
Philip Morris International, a tobacco company, is using the Freedom of Information Act to request data from research conducted at Stirling University into why young people start smoking. The university is resisting. I think that it is wrong to do so. I’m sure that this view will seem outrageous to many BMJ readers, and I […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Analgesia and GP anxiety
Last night we were pulled in by the police. Nothing like a flashing blue light in the rear view mirror to make you feel guilty. They asked for my driving licence and I could hear them call my name in on the radio. No problem. There had been a robbery. They got away, apparently, in a […]
Richard Smith: How much are you giving to the poor?
Would you give $1000 to stop a child drowning? Almost certainly. Why then are you not giving all the $1000 you can spare to save the lives of the 9 million children who die every year before their fifth birthday? The moral imperative is the same, says the philosopher Peter Singer. I learnt of this […]
Martin McShane: Stock take
I am not sure whether this time last year anyone could have predicted what massive changes would have been wrought across commissioning in England – and not a single piece of legislation has been passed. We are moving from a dispersed form of governance, PCTs each with their own boards, with executive and non-executive directors, to a […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 30 August 2011
JAMA 24-31 Aug 2011 Vol 306 840 Every GP knows that some patients who are admitted to hospital come out without their usual medication and take this as an indication that they don’t need it any more. This happens particularly after admission to ICU. The team doing this cohort study in Ontario makes an attempt […]
Richard Vize on banning outdoor smoking
Four years after the ban on smoking in public buildings was extended across the whole of the UK, libertarian hackles are being raised again, this time by local government moves to ban it outdoors. The localism bill, soon to reach the end of its parliamentary journey, includes a “power of general competence” allowing councils to […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Doctors behind the riots
Would you take a bus through the riot areas that made the news? Would you be comfortable walking along the streets that featured in the TV footage? Would you work there? Many of our colleagues do and I wonder how they are getting on with their immunisation targets, cervical smears, and QOF scores? Are all their […]
Saleyha Ahsan: Working in a refugee camp in Libya
A few weeks ago, I arrived in Tataouine, a desert town in South Tunisia, on a hot sandy day. I was there to work with the Libyan Global Relief Committee (LGRC), a medical group comprised of Libyan nationals or members of the diaspora returning home to help. These doctors and nurses have created a system to accommodate and […]
Stephen Ginn: Metaphors in medicine
Metaphors are widely used by both healthcare professionals and lay people when talking about matters of health. Despite this their role is largely unrecognised. This is a shame, I feel, as they can have a powerful effect on the practice of medicine and the experience of illness. A metaphor is a way of understanding and […]