Start with Handel’s Alleluia chorus, include a fireworks display, lay on a dinner hosted by government, during which the director general of the WHO makes a cabaret style eulogy. Add addresses from global health gurus, contributions from European health ministers, a scattering of parallel sessions and you have the making of a notable conference. And […]
Joe Collier: A stab at future UK Drug Pricing Policy
We are now into the fifth month of the negotiations to reform the secretive and perverse (and essentially discredited) UK Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS), and we can safely assume that the discussions will be hotting up as the new terms must be in place by the beginning of September. […]
Anna Donald prepares to move house
We have finally bought an apartment. A home in Sydney. We’ve been renting since October. Being in limbo on two fronts, health and home, was getting a bit much. So we bit the currency-exchange-bullet (our money is in sterling and the Australian dollar is at a 23-year high) and bought something. […]
Helen Barratt: In praise of the NHS
Studying for an MSc in Public Health this year, with students from a range of backgrounds, has been refreshing after years of learning and working with medics. However in classes, ‘doctor bashing’ has been de rigueur. I don’t for one moment claim that we’re above censure, but the criticism levelled at the profession has become […]
Liz Wager: Speechless with admiration
Losing your power of speech is the stuff of nightmares but is a reality to many people after a stroke. I’ve just been on a one-day workshop run by Connect, a charity that works for people with aphasia, and it was inspiring. […]
David Payne: Continuous publication
Continuous publication marks a significant shift in BMJ’s publishing cycle. From now on we will be populating bmj.com with lots of new content on a daily basis, instead of using the weekly print issue as the catalyst for a mass upload of articles. The homepage will change more frequently (as well as the pages showing […]
Fiona Godlee: What would you ask Lord Darzi?
The waiting is nearly over. After months of speculation, expectation, consultation, and criticism, the Darzi report on the future direction of the NHS in England comes out on Monday. Polyclinics will be part of it, but there will be much more besides. […]
Domhnall MacAuley: World Congress on Sports Injury Prevention
Far out. About as far away as you can get; 300 km above the Arctic circle in Tromso, Norway, at the World Congress on Sports Injury Prevention. […]
Julian Sheather: Is Prozac destroying the arts?
Do art and misery share a bed? Although we might expect art to entertain and even, at a push, to improve its audience, artists themselves are surely supposed to suffer. It is part of the job spec. […]
Edward Davies: Bringing the mountain to the managers
The annual NHS Confederation shindig was set to be the usual trawl through the good, the bad and the really pretty mediocre of the NHS, when something rather different caught my eye. […]