The NHS at 70: For platinum-level care, it’s time for everyone to reaffirm their vows
Describing the care his mother received in an NHS hospital Russell Brand recently wrote, “The NHS is the very best of us, it is a living, breathing, healing mother goddess born of war and sacrifice sustained by love and dedication.”...
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Resuscitating CAMHS: Something has to be done
A few years back I found myself on a first aid course. Tom, the elderly chap teaching us CPR, took a break from resuscitating his unusually antiquated dummy to solemnly address his audience. One of our group had asked what...
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Cancer culture clash?
If we over-stress the need for cancer patients to be courageous fighters, are we running the risk of denying them the chance of a peaceful end to life? Cancer, in its many different forms, is rarely out of the news....
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Disaster news, the media and cultural bias
Rarely a week goes by without a natural disaster hitting the headlines. This month, news coverage has included the eruption of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, flooding in the Turkish city of Ankara, and storms in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in...
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Co-payments for universal healthcare: the politics of blame
It was interesting to see the UK media discussion around the Co-Funding and Co-Payment Bill which was put before the House of Commons for its 2nd reading last week. The Parliamentary webpage describes it as “a Bill to make provision for co-funding...
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Incentivizing vulnerability: Regulating migration
Around 9,000 young people who arrived as unaccompanied children and claimed asylum have been denied a residence permit in Sweden since 2015. With a peak of new arrivals in 2015, the waiting time for decisions increased dramatically from a matter of...
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Unlearnt Lessons: dying from ‘choice’ in the care of the state
Two days before he died of faecal impaction on November 17th2012, Richard Handley had 10kg of faeces surgically removed from his body. His family raised the alarm because his distended abdomen made him look as though he was ‘full term...
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Rough Sleeping and the Unhealthy City
The rise in rough sleeping is a result of policies of austerity and exclusion, Yet, increasingly, public discourse frames homelessness as an individual problem. How can we refocus, so that the health of homeless people becomes a barometer for the...
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With or without solidarity?
Like other aspects of academic life the Cost of Living blog has been disrupted by recent industrial action by the University and College Union. This was in some ways an odd call as it scarcely fits into contracted work for...
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Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
“Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness.” George Orwell, Politics and the English Language (1945) With the half-life of NHS policies now measured in days and weeks, it was with weary resignation, rather than...
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University staff are getting a ‘Die Quickly’ pension plan. It won’t work.
What is at stake in the ongoing university strikes? To answer this question, Ewan McGaughey explains how the pension system works, who governs it, and their conflicts of interest. He argues that there is a need to rebuild the university...
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Extreme Waxing