A Father’s Day curry at home in muggy Derbyshire afforded me yet again the opportunity to attempt to field answers to a medic’s least favourite question of all: have you thought about a speciality, yet? As always, I churned out the same old answer about it being early days, that I am interested in many […]
A young man in his early 30s was brought to A&E in a large London Hospital after calling NHS Direct and reporting extreme tenderness and pain in his abdomen for the last 36 hours. He complained that he had to wait on a trolley and he only gave the hospital 5 out of 10. But […]
I don’t love my job as a “Junior Doctor”; indeed there are ever diminishing moments I love but there are parts of it I would be so bold as to say I absolutely hate! Surprising? Most likely, especially for those of you following the statements of how Junior Doctors “love their job” in the many […]
I am a GP at a busy NHS practice in Greater London. During a busy day, I see around 40 patients for five to ten minutes each. People come in and see me with problems ranging from ear ache to high blood pressure and fertility problems. I love my job but it is inevitable that the […]
In a now much-shared clip from a recent Daily Politics broadcast, two school girls were seen to take the veteran reporter Andrew Neil to task about the sugar tax budget announcement, whilst he fought for the public right to ‘break the rules’. The girls eloquently fielded success statistics regarding the implementation of seat belts in […]
Read More… from Medical advice, unsweetened — is medical paternalism a problem?
Over my career I have spent many thousands of hours in A&E departments working on shift to care for sick or hurt children. I, along with the medical team, do my best to care for the physical wellbeing of each and every patient that comes through the door. I find it hard to believe, therefore, […]
Read More… from We need to take stock of vending machines in A&E departments
Bullying – Definition = to use superior strength or influence to intimidate someone, typically to force them to do something. It started in July with name calling. For most, the health secretary’s comment that the doctors needed more vocation and professionalism was a slap in the face that came out of the blue. It was […]
I used to dream about being a nurse. There was me, in my nice little fantasy world, dressed in lilac with a frilly lace cap taking pulses and chatting to kindly patients all day. Oh how different is the reality! On day one as a student nurse on the wards, I was thrown straight into […]
The days when Sir Lancelot Spratt and his ilk of paternal Greats in NHS hospitals flirted with nurses and shouted at Junior Housemen are long gone. The male/female divide between doctors and nurses is a thing of the past. There are more women than men training to be medics in medical schools and women are even dominating […]
Read More… from The Junior doctors strike – It’s a woman’s thing!