Much of my time is now spent staring at a computer screen, and consequently information technology has inexorably put me back in touch with my contemporaries from medical school. I am sorry to report that there appears to be an epidemic of occupational burnout within the group. My Facebook feed is alive with news of […]
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The Lonesome West
Amid a world-wide shift in political alignment, we have yet another once-in-a-generation call to the ballot box. Tony Blair cannot bring himself to support Jeremy Corbyn to be Prime Minister. Tony Blair is extraordinary, even amongst a group of people as unusual as ex-Prime Ministers. I find him every bit as unlikeable as Donald Trump. […]
The flame still flickers
I have had a good idea. Let’s acknowledge that the functionalised system of care in mental health was never a clearly articulated policy, that it was never based on proper evidence, that most patients and professionals dislike it and that it does not work. Let’s abandon it. All we have to do is to agree […]
*I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
In recent months, I have found it difficult to prevent myself from continually blogging about the rise of the new brutalism. The next most pressing issue, as far as I am concerned, is the rapid and entirely unnecessary dismemberment of the NHS. I feel a bit trapped by the state of the world, which feels […]
Histrionics and quantum politics
Last week started with a somewhat anti-climactic announcement from the Prime Minister about mental health services. Her speech ended with a statement that “parity means parity”. If this was intended as a triumphant conclusion to a stirring performance, it fell rather flat. The phrase echoed her hollow “Brexit means Brexit” catechism. The Prime Minister seems […]
The virtual asylum revisited
Early in my career as a consultant, I took responsibility for the psychiatric care of a group of men who had been resettled in a community facility after decades as residents in a distant mental hospital. One man sticks in my mind. Ernie had diagnoses of learning disability and chronic schizophrenia. He was mute. He […]
The life so short, the craft so long to learn
On Monday, 24th October 2016, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges published a list of forty treatments and investigations that confer no benefit to patients and therefore might be appropriately discontinued. The initiative is part of the Choose Wisely campaign, which started in North America. Although the campaign is driven by the principle “first, do […]
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 […]