What do we, patients, really want when we phone up to book that appointment? What do we really need? Why do we feel like the only answer is to take a half day off work to go and see the doctor? Is it that we are genuinely ill, have developed symptoms of something inexplicable, feel […]
Daoxin Yin: Will the universal two-child policy in China exacerbate gender discrimination in the medical job market?
Winter is the new doctor recruiting season for Chinese hospitals. Between the end of November and February, government-owned hospitals, who are major employers, interview job candidates. Most of these candidates are medical students who are about to graduate in June or July. As well as the traditionally male-dominated surgical sector and other departments doing interventional […]
Helen Tuckwood: Living with vitiligo
I first noticed two patches of white skin about 10 years ago, when I was 47 years old. The patches were on the inside top of my thighs, symmetrical to each other. I had just returned from a holiday abroad and the white patches stood out. At first they didn’t really bother me because the […]
David Lock: Have NHS leaders failed to “speak truth unto power”?
This is blog is not a rant—well not too much of a rant. It is an expression of serious frustration about the way the NHS is run and about the willingness of some senior NHS managers to become complicit in something near to dishonesty. Everyone at the frontline knows the NHS is running on empty. […]
BMJ Christmas charity appeal: Orbis’s Flying Eye Hospital—going places where other charities often can’t
I think if I wasn’t an anaesthetist, I would have liked to have been a pilot. There are a lot of similarities between the two: in terms of responsibility, and that it’s a practical, science based role. My job and my interest in aviation combine perfectly through the charity I volunteer for, Orbis, which fights […]
Arnie Purushotham: Multidisciplinary team meetings in cancer care need to change
Multidisciplinary team (MDT) working is one of the cornerstones of our cancer services. MDT meetings are vital for exemplary patient care but it is becoming increasingly clear that they need to be refreshed. Despite the rising incidence of cancer, an ageing population and huge improvements to cancer services and treatment regimens, the format of MDT […]
Mikako Hayashi and Nairn Wilson: Time to put the mouth back in the body
We believe that it is time to put the mouth back in the body—for medical, social, and financial reasons. Healthcare worldwide needs to become more inclusive and holistic, to move from being curative to preventive, and to bring oral healthcare into the medical mainstream. A recent analysis from the British Dental Association, which estimated that […]
Nick Hopkinson: NHS humanitarian crisis denial
When I qualified as a doctor in 1993, trolley medicine was completely routine. Post take ward rounds would typically visit people who had been waiting patiently in corridors overnight or longer. I’m ashamed to say it never occurred to me to think of this as a “crisis”—it was just the way things were. The cause […]
Richard Smith: The brutality of demography
Many of us elite liberals like to think of ourselves as rational creatures trying to get by in a crazy world, but we know that we are prey to all sorts of cognitive and emotional malfunctions. What we don’t perhaps recognise so well is the power that demography exerts on us, just as it does […]
Jose Luis Vivero-Pol and Tomaso Ferrando: Let’s talk about the right to food
Legal recognition of the right to food and nutrition can create the grounds for effective and systemic solutions for hunger and malnutrition. Recently, the media was abuzz with news of plans by the Scottish Equalities Secretary to legislate the right to food within Scottish law. This would be a step towards tackling food poverty in […]