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Category Archives: Health Delivery
Is the patient really ill?
A question that often occurred to me when I was a GP was – Is this patient really ill? Some people obviously weren’t because they came about something else – for general advice for instance. But of the ones who … Continue reading
Politics, Health and Devolution.
I don’t usually discussed politics at all in my blog, unless absolutely essential to make a point. However, politics is now intruding on almost every aspect of our lives, all over the world. In the UK, Brexit is affecting the … Continue reading
Posted in Health Delivery, Health Policy, Medicine, Private health care, science
Tagged Brexit, Northern Ireland, Privatisation, Scotland, UK, Wales
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Why do parts of the media really enjoy criticizing the NHS in Wales?
It is generally considered that the NHS in Wales performs much worse than the English NHS. The Daily Mail is always saying so and many other commentators too. So when Theresa May recently asked – “If the Labour Party have … Continue reading
Posted in Health Delivery, Health Policy, Medicine, old age, Sir David Attenborough
Tagged end=of-life drugs, health, health service, UK
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Virtual Beds anyone?
The current crisis in the NHS is wearingly familiar. There is talk of patients waiting, and occasionally dying, on trolleys before being admitted, ambulances waiting for hours outside hospitals with paramedics before A&E have the space to take over their … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Health Delivery, Health Management, Health Policy, hospital beds, Medicine, old age
Tagged health service, Trolleys, winter crisis
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Breast surgeon guilty of doing unnecessary operations.
How would you feel if you had had an operation or treatment that you thought was necessary and then found out that you never needed this treatment? If you were told you had cancer but you never had it? Pretty … Continue reading
Assisted dying.
I wrote in my last blog that recent advances in treating dementia have shown promise. I said, “Drugs are being developed to target monoclonal antibodies against amyloid β, the protein that seems to be awry in Alzheimer’s disease”. However since … Continue reading
Old Age part 4 – Losing it
– Dementia and its prevention Having decided that everlasting life is impractical, we can still use existing knowledge to improve our survival. But we want our extra years to be enjoyable, and that won’t be the case if our brains … Continue reading
Old age doesn’t come by itself – part 3
It seems characteristic of older people these days that we think of ourselves as much younger than these old people we see around us. This because inside we still think of ourselves as being youthful if we feel well, even … Continue reading
Posted in Backache, Health Delivery, Health Policy, Medicine, old age, Physiology, sexual relationships
Tagged Alzheimer's disease, behaviour, dementia, exercise, health, heart attack, old age
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Old age doesn’t come by itself – part 2.
There is no doubt that the effects of getting older can be very troublesome. With the insouciance of youth in the surgery I would often joke about it, and sometimes say “well, the alternative is worse”, meaning that at least … Continue reading
Posted in Health Delivery, healthy food, Medicine, Physiology
Tagged deafness, eyes, health, sleep, teeth
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Old age doesn’t come by itself
There is an old Welsh saying that patients used to tell me when they came to see me in the surgery complaining of aches and pains, or failing eyesight and many other things – “old age doesn’t come by itself”, … Continue reading
Posted in Backache, Medicine
Tagged muscle weakness, skin, sun damage, vitamin supplements, wrinkles
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Elen Samuel, doctor and writer 