Pre-registration house jobs were supposed to comprise twelve months working under close supervision whilst a decision was made whether the doctor should be allowed to work as an autonomous medical practitioner. In practice, it was unheard of that anyone should fail to move from provisional to full registration. My house jobs were due to end […]
Archive | Junior Doctors
A cut-and-shut affair
By Catherine Robinson on 26th October 2022 in Hospitals, Junior Doctors, Medical Values, surgery, Uncategorised
Lanesborough House, the historic St George’s building at Hyde Park Corner, closed suddenly in 1980 when its state of disrepair became a danger to the public. The new hospital was not yet finished, so the consultants had to temporarily occupy Victorian wards in Tooting that were awaiting demolition. I did my surgical house job in […]
Not in the prescription
I have a framed picture on my dining room wall that was left to me by my grandmother when she died. It was given to her for her 17th birthday by a friend when they were both training to be nurses during the First World War. My grandmother married before she qualified and, as a […]
The Northern Line Part 1. The Spider Club
By Catherine Robinson on 1st November 2021 in 1975, Alcohol, Class, Hospitals, Junior Doctors, Medical School, Medical Values, Medicine, Social Mobility
Between 1733 and 1980, St George’s Hospital and its medical school were located at Hyde Park Corner, one of the best sites in Belgravia. The building was grand but neglected. In 1980, just before I sat medical school finals, we were allocated our pre-registration house jobs. I was not looking forward to working as a […]
Gimme Some Truth
Jeremy Hunt is usually a skilful media performer, but he was unable to keep the lid on his own hubris in an interview with the Mail On Sunday this weekend. This is particularly unfortunate as he is developing a talent for being consistently wrong about almost everything. The Mail on Sunday piece opens like this: […]
We agree about nearly everything
I have blogged about the English junior doctors’ dispute more than once before. Right back in January, I said “There is a great deal at stake in this dispute. A strike is always a two-edged sword, and I have misgivings about where this strike will take us. Nevertheless, sometimes you just have to decide whose […]
Sous les pavés, la plage!
Constant concern about the state of the NHS is wearing. In the background, there is a danger of unwittingly creating a sort of public nihilism, a belief that all is irredeemably lost. I am particularly concerned about deterring the young from entering medicine, and more especially psychiatry. The current crisis is real, but the medical […]