Author Archives: Elen Samuel

Unknown's avatar

About Elen Samuel

I am a doctor, now retired from active practice. I still love reading and writing about medicine, and particularly about how we treat our bodies like we do. What works, what doesn't, why we prefer to do something rather than nothing, why we can't hang on till things get better on their own (as they usually do), and why we get so worried about our health. Apart from that I play the violin in many groups, and I like walking and cycling, and travel.

Childcare woes

Posted on January 4, 2026 by Elen Samuel

Yesterday I was flipping through a medical journal and read something that brought back the past very vividly. It was an account of how a young GP, who was a mother of school age children, was struck off the medical … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Interesting snippets on getting adequate medical care

Posted on October 29, 2025 by Elen Samuel

Last year I wrote a blog “Women’s bodies shamed in medicine”, (1) on how women are treated both as doctors and as patients, and how their position as doctors has improved out of all recognition in the last fifty years. There … Continue reading →

Posted in Health Delivery, Health Policy, Medicine, Private health care, Women's Health | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

SEEING CLEARLY

Posted on May 8, 2025 by Elen Samuel

There was a very interesting medical story on all the main British TV channels recently. It was about a young female medical student who developed a serious problem with one eye, which caused recurrent iritis. (1). As I well remember, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A brave new world of lower waiting lists in the NHS?

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Elen Samuel

Thank goodness, the new government is trying very hard to speed up the process of diagnosis and treatment to reduce waiting lists in the NHS, and I think they are on the right track. Allowing patients to book their own … Continue reading →

Posted in Health Delivery, Health Management, Health Policy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

NHS funding – Where should our priorities be?

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Elen Samuel

With all this talk of the latest budget giving a huge amount of money to the NHS, it is now necessary to look at how this amount of money can be spent in order to rescue the health of this … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Women’s bodies shamed in medicine.

Posted on July 7, 2024 by Elen Samuel

It is said that historically women have had a raw deal in Western systems of medicine. Women’s bodies have been routinely sexualized or their characteristics ignored or shamed. In a recent book1 a leading cancer doctor in the US, Dr … Continue reading →

Posted in Health Delivery, Health Policy, Medicine, sexual relationships, Women's Health | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Can the NHS survive?

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Elen Samuel

While going about my normal life, fitting in appointments for dentists and  eye tests amongst shopping and hair appointments, I sometimes think about the changes in provision for these first two since I retired from clinical practice  over ten years … Continue reading →

Posted in Health Delivery, Health Management, Health Policy, Private health care | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Demographics as a tool in war in Gaza

Posted on October 27, 2023 by Elen Samuel

Our world does seem to be unwinding. Climate breakdown, wars, mass killings, pestilence, poverty and malnutrition are all related. From a planetary perspective, this is nothing new; as David Attenborough points out, our planet has seen this, and much worse, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Looking Back on Covid-19

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Elen Samuel

As I write this, some scientists are urging us to start to wear masks again, because there is a new variant  and cases of covid are rising. Covid hasn’t gone away and we know that things may take a turn … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus, Health Delivery, Health Policy, healthy food, Medicine, pandemic, science | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Apps for Women’s Health

Posted on May 11, 2022 by Elen Samuel

The news that safe abortion is likely to be illegal in the USA, in vast swathes of the Midwest and south, is chilling.  The right to control what happens in one’s own body is a basic human right.    In … Continue reading →

Posted in Health Management, Medicine, Populaion growth, Women's Health | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment