A sense of an ending?
By the time this blog is published on the morning of Friday 8th May, we may be a step closer to knowing what the next UK government is going to look like. Having said that, we may be further away...
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HIV : How will things change with the arrival of do-it-yourself home-testing kits?
According to official estimates, there are more than 25,000 people in the UK who are currently unaware that they are HIV positive. From a Public Health point of view, this is not a good position for the country to be...
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Sharing not caring? On Social Media and Health Campaigns
Social media is a powerful tool in health related campaigning and the latest high profile campaign to gain momentum on the twittersphere involves celebrity Gwyneth Paltrow. She is taking part in the New York food challenge organised by chef Mario...
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The Paradox of Stigma in Mental Health: Germanwings Flight 9525
On the 24th March 2015 Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed into the French Alps killing all 150 passengers and flight staff. Amidst the shock of this tragedy French Police and Air Crash Investigators began to piece together the details of the...
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Taking a break: a note on the sociology of snacking
I was at the dentist a couple of weeks ago and he managed to surprise me. For more than a decade now these encounters have been pretty predictable. Moralising about sugar, followed by mild disapproval about the state of my...
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Money, Death, Pain and Politics
Who’s who and what’s what in the war over cancer drugs Over the last few days a very nice man from Ipswich called Tim Mason has been appearing in the local media where I live. Tim has an illness called...
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CAMHS in Crisis
There’s been more bad news recently about the state of young people’s mental health. One in five 11-15 year-olds in England now report self-harming. The number of people who die by suicide is also increasing, as is the number of...
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A Crisis in GP care: greed, funding or ideology?
Most recent surveys report a GP crisis in the UK. The question is whether this caused by greed, underfunding or the stress of working under an oppositional government ideology
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(Imaginary) healthcare heroes – Ms Conscientious (#2 in an occasional series)
Imagine a paramedic who is a dedicated clinician. Imagine her to be conscientious, caring and skilful. And now imagine that she is so disturbed by the conditions of today’s NHS that she is seriously considering leaving her secure employment as...
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David Cameron, England’s NHS, and the tiger in the bathroom
As it becomes impossible to deny the devastation being wreaked on the National Health Service by 2012’s Health & Social Care Act, who is really pledging to fix it?
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Q: “When is an NHS provider not a qualified provider?” A: “When it’s a willing provider…”
What’s the difference you might ask? Well, here’s the rub, according to the last edition of Private Eye, there isn’t one! December’s edition of Private Eye reported a range of concerns about the regulation and governance of Any Qualified Providers...
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Weight stigma, neoliberalism and questions of blame