Will a controversial new data platform change how the NHS “thinks”?
It was announced last year that the controversial tech firm Palantir had won a huge new contract with the NHS to provide a digital platform for the management of health data. The company will provide the NHS with a new...
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The NHS in Late Soviet Britain
We are now at the unprecedented point where private hospitals are doing one in ten planned NHS operations in England. This marks a 50% increase in elective procedures outsourced to private providers since 2019 (before COVID), leading some to claim...
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Hospital privatisation is linked with worse quality care for patients – new research
The NHS is in a critical state. The continued consequences of the pandemic and long waits for treatment mean that people are facing more difficulties than ever accessing the care they need. A growing number of people are even paying...
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Public Fears Of Getting Old: Is society making us scared of ageing?
We live in times of heightened societal fears of ageing. Ageing is seen as both a process and a state that we must vigilantly monitor and slow down, however, we cannot avoid it. Youthfulness, and its perceived vigour, are to...
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Physician Associates: why the controversy?
Primary care workloads are a perennial concern in the NHS. With problems recruiting and retaining GPs, policies to expand the skill mix are a usual mainstay of calls for improvement. Plans to expand the Physician Associates (PA) workforce are one...
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The fragile worker: stigma, illness and disability in the contemporary workplace
Fragility is a not a concept we explore often in relation to the workplace disability. When we use the word fragile we are often talking about objects; when it’s used in relation to people, we often mean the very old,...
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War and conflict – what’s the role of medical sociology?
War and conflict are very much part of our global experience as we move into 2024. The conflicts in Ukraine and in Gaza are ongoing and prominent in Global North media and popular discourse. Other conflicts, such as in Syria...
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O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, how lovely are your branches.
We have a running debate in our house about the relative benefits of real and fake Christmas trees. Each year for the past 25 years I have made my bid for a real tree. I used to argue for the...
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Around a million children in the UK are living in destitution
Around a million children in the UK are living in destitution – with harmful consequences for their development. Millions of people in the UK are unable to meet their most basic physical needs: to stay warm, dry, clean and fed....
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Myths about plastic pollution are leading to public confusion: here’s why
Does the prediction that there could be “more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050” concern you? How about reports that “we eat a credit card’s worth of plastic per week”? These are some of the “facts” about plastic...
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Politics, Economics and the Sociology of Health and Illness
The government’s politics increasingly drive the detailed organisation and rapid privatisation of healthcare. Government austerity policies and mismanagement of healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic have had a great impact on the nation’s health. There are less than half the number...
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Mental Health Cultures