All over social media recently there has been wailing and gnashing of teeth by GPs, such as myself, at suggestions that the opening hours of general practice are in some way to blame for the crisis in hospitals up and down the country. A single paper initially led with the story that the Prime Minister was […]
Florence Wilcock: Maternity voices partnerships—“No hierarchy, just people”
“No decision about me without me” has been a key element of NHS rhetoric since 2012. It’s a great idea, however, the current reality is that as a universal principle this remains far from true. Why is there still such a struggle to make this happen? In healthcare there is an increasing acceptance of the […]
Reena Aggarwal: Finding a scapegoat for the NHS crisis
A year ago junior doctors in England went on strike for the first time in four decades. Jeremy Hunt, health secretary for England, used statistics on the so called “weekend effect” to justify a new contract for junior doctors. This was despite warnings from the medical director of NHS England that it would be “rash […]
David Gilbert: “What would a patient led solution to the A+E crisis look like?”
Like many people who spout rhetoric about the NHS, I am guilty of indulging in the blame game. Some professionals and policy makers “blame” patients for “inappropriate attendance” at A&E and we have millions spent on campaigns to urge us to “choose wisely” when thinking about heading that way (assuming that we do not make […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—16 January 2017
NEJM 12 Jan 2017 Vol 376 PROMS and PROs I first went to the Proms in 1966. I enjoyed the queuing, the atmosphere, and the music: young Barenboim playing Beethoven with Boulez, Kertesz conducting Dvorak, Heather Harper singing something English and so forth. So long ago. Now the word prom seems to mean a passing-out […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Apoptosis
In their landmark paper in the British Journal of Cancer 45 years ago, Kerr, Wyllie, and Currie reported a phenomenon that they described as “controlled cell deletion”. They proposed calling it “apoptosis” and explained the term in a footnote, as follows: The word “apoptosis” (ἁπόπτωσισ) is used in Greek to describe the “dropping off” or […]
Keith Pearson: “I hear and share doctors concerns about revalidation”
When the General Medical Council (GMC) commissioned me to carry out a review—Taking Revalidation Forward—I considered revalidation’s primary function was to assure patients about the quality and safety of doctors. I still believe that, but I have also gained a greater appreciation of the benefits revalidation brings to healthcare organisations and to doctors themselves. People have […]
Martin McKee: A Shared Society? Interpreting Theresa May’s revolutionary vision
Theresa May is an unlikely revolutionary. Yet, on the day she entered 10 Downing Street, this was how she defined herself. She spoke of the need to tackle shorter life expectancy of those born poor, the harsher treatment of black people in the criminal justice system, and low educational attainment among white working class boys. […]
Andrew S Al-Rais: How to avoid handover hostility
Arriving in resus the tension was palpable. A familiar interplay was evolving in the Paediatric bay. The “Handover Standoff.” On one side stood a fatigued transfer team accompanying an intubated toddler with intracranial pathology. The last couple of hours had been spent performing complex tasks in a stressful environment whilst simultaneously organising beds, personnel, and […]
Lindsay-Ann Coyle and Sarah Atkinson: Living with multimorbidity
“I sometimes refer to myself as having OCD and sometimes refer to myself as having an eating disorder.” Living with multimorbidity may constitute one of the biggest challenges to how contemporary medicine is practised. The number of people living with multimorbidity is predicted to double in one decade—that is from 1.9m to 2.9m between 2008 […]