Professor Hutchison is consultant oral & maxillofacial surgeon at Bartholomew’s and The Royal London Hospital and is the founder of the Facial Surgery Research Foundation – Saving Faces – a charity dedicated to the reduction of facial disfigurement and disease. ‘I mainly work treating head and neck cancer and some of these patients suffer severe social […]
Not so long ago, I found myself in the ‘swampy lowlands’ of general practice, a term devised by the philosopher, Donald Schon to describe those areas of professional practice uncharted by evidence and incapable of technical solution. I found myself sitting on a filthy sofa in a cluttered flat, listening to the tears of my […]
I remember very clearly the first time I walked onto the intensive care unit (ICU). The first thing that struck me was that so many of the patients were sitting up, awake. The unit was almost full and in three open bay areas of four beds each nearly everyone had visitors, and most were engaged […]
“I don’t know if I can do it.” Jeremy seemed truly frightened. “My GP is a woman, and I can’t talk to her about my loss of sex drive.” As a sex and relationship therapist in private practice, I’d been working with Jeremy (aged 43) and James (41) to explore their lack of sex. “It […]
Despite decades of public dietary guidelines devised to optimise human health, the world is now facing an unprecedented global epidemic of obesity and diabetes; threatening to bring the modern health care system to its knees. In this same era we have seen radical changes in the food environment of the Western world. Processed food has […]
Read More… from Icelandic Health Symposium: Obesity and Diabetes
I recently returned from a whistle-stop tour of Australia where I gave a series of public lectures arguing that excess sugar consumption leads to chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. It was great to get an opportunity to appear on national TV, talking to Emma Alberici, host of Lateline on Australian Broadcasting […]
On the first of February this year I travelled to Calais to visit the refugee camp. In the run-up to my departure, the news was saturated with stories regarding displaced people escaping a place they could no longer call home. Terrorist threat, war, poverty and the hope for a better life sent people across barbed […]
The NHS has a long tradition of balancing patient safety and religious views and practices. In 2008 there was some debate over new health guidelines introduced to stop the spread of infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile. There is growing discussion on wearing full-face veils, such as the burqa and the nijab. They should not be […]
Elusive Autism in girls: I had seen one paediatrician, one educational psychologist, three psychiatrists, multiple therapists, and required at least three Crisis Home Treatment Teams before my Asperger’s was spotted. Some of my diagnoses included Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Stomach Migraines, Depression, Anxiety, Anankastic Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Traits, and general mood instability. I do not […]
Drugs to alleviate symptoms; drugs to prolong life; drugs to counteract side effects of other drugs. Doctors’ prescribing powers in the face of illness have never been greater, and patients’ lists of medicines to take have never been longer. By the time you are receiving care in a nursing home, it is quite likely that […]
Read More… from Popping pills, doing drugs: the nurse’s drug round