Data & the gaming of A&E waiting times
A few days ago I found myself investigating the bed occupancy statistics for an NHS hospital trust. This was in response to a friend telling me that the hospital had found the need to invent a new colour level of...
More…
Big Drinkers to get a Big Nudge
Public Health England is putting all its efforts into alcohol unit pricing – but is it really the right thing to do? Last week, the Parliamentary Health Select Committee was listening to the views of Public Health experts on the...
More…
Solving the Problem of Plastic Pollution: Beyond the natural sciences?
Concerns about the issue of plastic pollution and the health and environmental dangers of microplastics are now firmly in the spotlight. So far, the emphasis has largely been on introducing greater regulation at an international and national level but what...
More…
Shortage of nurses in UK is affecting patient care and threatening lives
Nursing is often seen as the beating heart of the NHS. But, if recent media reports are anything to judge by, the beating heart is badly in need of a cardiologist. Outsiders looking in would rightly be puzzled by the...
More…
A shuffling shambles: calamity or conspiracy?
The news earlier this week that Jeremy Hunt was not only going to be staying as Secretary of State for Health, but was also extending his ministerial remit to cover social care as well, came as something of a shock....
More…
Deportation and despair in context
Assessments of the health needs of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe tend to focus on trauma suffered prior to exile and during the flight to the host country. Less attention has been paid to the ill effects of the...
More…
Public troubles and private lives – how could ‘iHomecare’ be the answer to the social care crisis?
There is a permanent contradiction in the sphere of health and social care in that one person’s home is another person’s workplace, such that people’s private lives are intertwined with public responses to those lives (i.e. the state provision of...
More…
Risk and danger – time to change systems, not humans?
In June this year, the Mayor of London committed to delivering ‘Vision Zero’ for road injuries. This initiative aims that deaths and serious injuries on the roads should be eliminated in London by 2041. That’s a bold aim: despite falling...
More…
When should we worry? Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is in the news as public health specialists around the world ask us to pay attention to Antibiotic Awareness Week. Posters have gone up across the UK warning that ‘taking antibiotics when you don’t need them puts...
More…
Making a virtue of variation? The fragmentation of the English NHS
Geographic reform of the NHS is not new: region, district, area, and locality are all familiar terms in NHS history, and notions of “place” as an organising principle retain an intrinsic appeal for policy-makers. Recently, the English NHS has now...
More…
The Doctors’ Trial: 70 years on from the Nuremberg Code
While many of us, on occasion complain about having to get ethical approval, it is important to be aware of the history behind these obligations. This is especially true with the recent resurgence of the far-right and Neo-Nazis leading to...
More…
All you need is love…