Ending the hostile environment in health: The responsibility of intellectuals
As usual I was running late. Walking away from patients or relatives at the end of the day working as a doctor in the NHS is never an easy task. But it is something that has become increasingly difficult since...
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Joker
May Contain Spoilers In the same week as World Mental Health Day (10th October) the blockbuster, from the DC Comics’ Batman series, “Joker” was number one in both the UK and US box offices. While the various Batman movies, and...
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Compassion and Solidarity
Is there more anger in the news than usual? Ala Sirriyeh, 2018. The Politics of Compassion: Immigration and Asylum Policy. Bristol: Bristol University Press. xiv, 208 pp. Boris Johnson’s inflammatory language at the first session of the UK’s Westminster parliament after its...
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The myth of sudden ‘No-deal’ food shortages
A friend of mine whispered to me the other day that he is stockpiling items of food in advance of the impending ‘no deal’ Brexit food chaos. Indeed a quarter of UK voters have started taking precautions against the adverse...
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The Social Construction of Dental Fear
Fear of the dentist is one of the most common fears across Europe and North America. Recent research in the British Dental Journal suggesting that over 50% of the UK population claim to experience dental fear when visiting the dentist,...
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Political Suicide
Last week it was #WorldSuicidePreventionDay – social media was awash with supportive messages being thrown into the ether for whoever might see/need them, or to virtue signal. We are told it is ok not to be ok, that we should...
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Cool to Care?
Social Change, the Climate Emergency, and the ‘Snowflake Generation’ The idea that it’s ‘cool to care’ and the recent rise of ethical consumerism in the UK has been driven by ‘Millennials’. But is ‘cool to care’ simply a reworking of...
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Predictive Genetics For All – Minister Hancock’s big idea
The future of the NHS is in prevention rather than cure. And the mass application of genetics profiling can bring that about say Health Minister Hancock and his new best friend…. There are big changes afoot in terms of the...
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Anti-stigma campaigns in mental health: what gets left out?
Over the past two decades, stigma for people with mental health problems has become an increasing concern for researchers, practitioners, service users and politicians. This has led to several international government funded campaigns to increase public awareness of the realities...
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Atalanta the Greek Amazon: revisioning gender equality in STEMM
In a previous blog in 2015, commenting on the film ‘Suffragette’, I compared the situation for women in science depicted in the film with modern times. One of the main characters, Edith, was a qualified pharmacist but had been denied...
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Doctors as border police: what happened to ‘first, do no harm’?
Building trust and acting in the patient’s best interests are guiding principles of medical practice. This is especially true when caring for vulnerable and marginalised people, such as undocumented migrants. They often delay going to the doctor and find it...
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Tech Companies are Shaping Health Knowledge for Profit