New research led by George Lewith, Professor of Health Research at the University of Southampton suggests doctors’ burnout should be treated as organisation-wide problem There can be little doubt that winter pressures are beginning to mount up in hospitals and GP’s practices around the country testing the strength of even the most resilient medical staff. […]
Empathy in clinical practice is an essential component of the doctor-patient relationship. This is the understanding of how another human being is feeling without going through the emotional rollercoaster yourself. Unfortunately, however, it is often lacking. Indeed, studies of medical undergraduate education reveal some evidence that there is a decline in empathy as students move […]
Not only is it treating more patients than ever before, but A&E performance in the UK has slumped to a 10-year low. Almost one in ten patients visiting A&E are waiting for more than four hours, while the same proportion are waiting longer than 18 weeks to begin hospital treatment, the King’s Fund think-tank revealed […]
Read More… from The NHS is bracing itself for the toughest winter in a decade
Pancreatic cancer has no early warning signs and the majority of people with this disease present with acute symptoms such as jaundice and weight loss. In the vast majority of cases, pancreatic cancer is only diagnosed when it is already at an advanced stage. Resection or removal of the tumour is the only way to […]
I am a father of someone who had cancer. My daughter, Bryony, died in 2004 when she was 23 after suffering from three highly malignant cancers, starting from when she was nine years old. She is the inspiration for Yes to Life which has helped thousands of people who want to pursue non-conventional approaches which are not currently available on […]
‘When it comes to safety for patients in the operating theatre, it’s not always the ‘big spends’ that make the biggest difference. For instance, the World Health Organization has developed a one-page safety checklist for surgical teams which maximises the chances of a good outcome – regardless of the geographic or economic setting. This Surgical Safety […]
We are now living in a post-Brexit world. On the 23rd June 2016, we as a nation decided to leave the European Union and navigate our own way through this increasingly connected world. For 43 years, the UK has been a member state of the EU, working in an inter-connected market of free-trade and political collaboration, but is […]
Read More… from Brexit and the future of UK medical research
The little things make a big difference. Your hammer and anvil are as valuable as your hand and your arm, your pineal gland as essential as your patella. To quote St Paul, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would […]
Adrift and deserted, the disappearance of the crew from the Mary Celeste remains a mystery. Walking onto a hospital ward today, you might also notice a distinct lack of trained staff, especially nurses. Buzzers unanswered, monitors beeping, patients calling out in pain; I have observed doctors being asked for blankets and bedpans. The Institute for […]
A medical education in the UK is a very specific affair. There are some facts that of course are global, fundamentals of anatomy for example, that are the same from Karachi to California. Some things you need to learn to be a doctor anywhere in the world. But here there is one element that is […]