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Category Archives: Health Policy
Interesting snippets on getting adequate medical care
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 dental-care, health, healthcare, Medicine, NHS, Optometrists, pharmacists
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A brave new world of lower waiting lists in the NHS?
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 health, healthcare, news, NHS, politics, waiting times
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Women’s bodies shamed in medicine.
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 discrimination, health service, misogyny, pseudo-angina, UK
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Can the NHS survive?
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 dental, dentist, dentistry, Dentists, Ear infections, health, health service, healthcare, NHS, Optometrists, Privatization, UK
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Looking Back on Covid-19
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 Covid-19, health service, UK
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Covid-19 – lockdowns go on and on. What should we do?
The decision to impose a second lockdown in England is polarising people to a much greater extent than it did in March, as it seems obvious that this virus is not going away and we are going to have to … Continue reading
Posted in Coronavirus, Health Delivery, Health Management, Health Policy, hospital beds, old age
Tagged Covid-19, economy, Lockdown, mortality
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So who really gets really sick with Coronavirus?
It is still very early days of this new life for all of us. There are such a lot of changes – home working, loads of leisure time to fill, catching up with friends we have neglected due to busy … Continue reading
Posted in Health Delivery, Health Policy, hospital beds, Medicine, science
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Managing addiction to drugs – my experiences over the years.
Addiction is unfortunately part of the human condition. It is due to the reward system hard wired into our brains, giving us the feeling of pleasure, which is essential to keep us functioning. Emotions, reproductive drive and the instinct to … 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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Our children’s future
Global warming and population growth. The Anthropocene. This is the official name for the epoch we are now living in and it means “the age of humans”. It is named this because we humans are causing global change everywhere that … Continue reading
Elen Samuel, doctor and writer 