Scandi noir or Nordic utopia? State mental health care in Scandinavia
In the UK, we tend to be horrified at the lack of state mental health provision in the US: My biggest hang-up isn’t even the orange nightmare you’ve somehow let into the White House—it’s the fact you seem totally fine... More…
Support workers as invisible healthcare providers
Book Review: Support Workers and the Health Professions an International Perspective, the invisible providers of healthcare Support workers are: ‘a worker who provides face-to-face care or support of a personal or confidential nature to patients and/or service users in clinical... More…
The stop-start of collaboration in clinical settings
A post about the difficulties of applied interdisciplinary social science and healthcare collaboration in clinical settings Healthcare organisations and healthcare professionals are under a constant imperative to innovate. Social scientists, in the era of impact, are being asked to play... More…
Tech Companies are Shaping Health Knowledge for Profit
Healthcare and treatment have always been closely entwined with technological innovation and learning. Knowledge of the body, as well as treatments and procedures which medics perform, have been made possible by the development of stethoscopes, X-rays and MRIs amongst myriad... More…
Doctors as border police: what happened to ‘first, do no harm’?
Building trust and acting in the patient’s best interests are guiding principles of medical practice. This is especially true when caring for vulnerable and marginalised people, such as undocumented migrants. They often delay going to the doctor and find it... More…
The Colonisation of Pondering and Pottering
What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where... More…
Matt Hancock- another victim of Perpetual NHS Shock Syndrome (PNSS)
This week, Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, called for radical change in the NHS workforce in order to support doctors and nurses who experience trauma in their daily work. Indeed Mr Hancock went so... More…
The NHS at 70: For platinum-level care, it’s time for everyone to reaffirm their vows
Describing the care his mother received in an NHS hospital Russell Brand recently wrote, “The NHS is the very best of us, it is a living, breathing, healing mother goddess born of war and sacrifice sustained by love and dedication.”... More…
Co-payments for universal healthcare: the politics of blame
It was interesting to see the UK media discussion around the Co-Funding and Co-Payment Bill which was put before the House of Commons for its 2nd reading last week. The Parliamentary webpage describes it as “a Bill to make provision for co-funding... More…
University staff are getting a ‘Die Quickly’ pension plan. It won’t work.
What is at stake in the ongoing university strikes? To answer this question, Ewan McGaughey explains how the pension system works, who governs it, and their conflicts of interest. He argues that there is a need to rebuild the university... More…
Placebo, participation and surgery
A therapeutic effect that cannot be attributed to an active ingredient of medication is termed ‘placebo’. The ‘placebo effect’ is far from a neutral description of the effect of ‘inert drugs’, being associated with the quackery and deception of sugar... More…
Quarantine diary