Tag Archives: health

Patients not passports

Posted on March 13, 2022 | 1 comment

I spent this week scrolling through my news feed, watching war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. A hospital was just bombed. I sent more money to humanitarian organisations including Doctors of the World. Whilst it is easy to feel powerless in the face of terrible world events, there are ways we can stand in solidarity. And whilst our minds are focused on people fleeing conflict, it is a good time to consider how refugees are treated if they reach the UK and need healthcare. I was therefore pleased to be part of a panel this week, to launch the Southwark Patients not Passports campaign.

It included a screening of NHS Borderlands, an investigative documentary into the human cost of charging migrants for accessing the NHS, made by Bare Life Films. It features Angela who, after fleeing Zimbabwe in fear for her life, sought asylum in the UK where she has lived with her husband for 20 years. Following a vital hysterectomy operation Angela was – without warning – issued a bill for £8,000 by the NHS. Angela is not allowed to work and has no source of income and this bill jeopardizes her life in the UK forever. There are many stories like Angela’s, most untold and undocumented. This film shows how healthcare workers and campaigners are fighting alongside Angela to keep the border out of the NHS.

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Posted in In Between

Tagged activism, advocacy, asylum, compassion, health, hostile environment, life, migrant, NHS, politics, refugee, solidarity

More doctors should engage with arts and health

Posted on May 21, 2016 | Leave a comment

An article I co-wrote “More doctors should engage with arts in health” was recently published in BMJ careers. A longer version is below. Many healthcare professionals are interested in the arts, as part of their own wellbeing as well as their patients. It may not be clear how to align this interest with day to day work, and arts in health practice can therefore seem inaccessible to clinicians. We hope to bridge this gap with an introductory training event, the first of which will be on 30th June at the UCL Macmillan Cancer Centre, and has been approved for 3 RCP CPD points. Read more about it on the LAHF website, and book tickets via EventBrite.

What is good health?

Doctors spend their professional lives trying to help their patients achieve good health. Although many start medical school with an idealised image of medicine as cure, most rapidly realise that despite phenomenal advances in science, cure is seldom possible. This is partly due to the nature of disease and the inevitable frailty of the human body, and partly due to the fact that none of us exist in a vacuum, and our potions and pills do nothing to change individual patients’ contexts or experience of illness. In fact ‘illness’ is almost impossible to define, as we medicalise more and more natural life processes and events. How can medicine address modern day phenomena of socioeconomic inequalities, lack of housing, poverty, loneliness, ageing, grief, disengagement from society, struggles with sexuality, or finding meaning in life? Should it?

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An invitation to An Evening with Death

Posted on April 4, 2013 | 2 comments

Where do you want to die? How do you want to be remembered? What is it like to be present when someone dies?

Death is a subject that it is often difficult to talk about, but is something we all have in common. On this blog I have shared some of my thoughts and experiences as a healthcare professional, having seen death, dying and grief more than most people I know. I have advocated for more open discussions about the fragility of the human body, the limits of medical interventions, and the freedom to live life to the full that might be gained from embracing it’s finite nature.

As a teacher I believe I have a responsibility to prepare medical students to deal with death and grief, and wonder whether we need new ways to do this effectively. Can sharing our experiences with the public be a learning experience for all? Can the arts and humanities help us to cross the ‘us and them’ doctor-public divide?

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Posted in Death

Tagged death, event, grief, health, Poetry

Can we find the spirit of ’45 in 2013?

Posted on April 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Today marks a defining moment in the history of Britain, but looking around you wouldn’t believe it. Today, April 1st 2013, sees the The Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) come into force.

The death certificate of the NHS, issued by the National Health Action Party

Some still believe that those opposed to the HSCA are over-dramatic, reactionary or naive. They will probably dismiss the National Health Action Party as extreme and publicity-seeking as it has issued a death certificate for the NHS, citing the cause of death as the HSCA 2013, with contributing causes including Thatcherism and the failure of New Labour. But it is difficult to see how anything but extreme statements and gestures can capture the attention of the public. Our generation is standing by as the NHS is quietly privatised and I for one am ashamed.

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The human touch

Posted on November 11, 2012 | 8 comments

I recently took a group of medical students to see Mrs Cole*. She was 88 and was in hospital due to a severe exacerbation of COPD. She was kind enough to let us talk to her and listen to her lungs, despite being quite breathless. As we talked I perched on the edge of the bed and, as I often do, held her hand. She grasped it tightly and wouldn’t let go. I finished the teaching session, sent the students off to their lecture, and stayed with Mrs Cole longer than I had intended. It felt like she was clinging to me as we talked; clinging to my youth, my health, and my carefree existence.

I couldn’t offer her much: we were treating her exacerbation but no drugs could reverse her lung damage. No words could allay her very real fears for the future. But I felt what I could offer – a tiny piece of my time, and my hand to hold – meant something.

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8 Comments

Posted in Life

Tagged compassion, healing, health, holistic, human, kindness, touch

Life in my shoes

Posted on July 16, 2012 | 1 comment

On a recent set of on call shifts I met James,* who my team treated for pulmonary emboli. He was a lovely man; visits to check he was on enough oxygen to maintain his saturations and to assess his haemodynamic status were a joy, due to his easy manner and good humour.

One one occasion I was with my Consultant, who had known James for a while prior to this admission. At the end of the consultation he asked a very powerful question “is there anything else on your mind?” At this point I was closing the notes folder and putting my pen in my pocket, expecting to move on to the next patient. But James did have something on his mind.

What I have not mentioned is that James is HIV positive. He has been living with HIV for many years and facing the challenges associated with this with resolve and good humour. His current problem was not directly related to his HIV status, but as is the usual practice whilst he was in hospital he was cared for by both the general medical team, and the “immune deficiency team” who were able to advise on potential interactions with his ARVs and give other specialist input.

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Posted in Life

Tagged AIDS, chronic disease, confidentiality, discrimination, doctor, health, HIV, patient, person, Sexually transmitted disease, stigma

How to die: CPR and the concept of futility

Posted on June 11, 2012 | 3 comments

I recently cared for Ernest,* an 87 year old gentleman who spent around two weeks on my ward. Prior to admission his health was poor. He was bed-bound due to the late stages of a degenerative neurological disease, and had associated cognitive impairment. He had several other health complaints, and had been in hospital multiple times in the previous year with infections. He had always responded to antibiotics but his condition and level of interaction with the world had declined with each admission. On arrival to our ward I noticed that he did not have a DNAR order and, since he was not able to discuss his wishes, I looked to the family for information and to broach this subject. I was surprised to find that several vocal family members were adamantly against a DNAR. I had lengthy discussions explaining my reasons for believing that attempts at resuscitation would be futile and that setting limits of care was important to ensure we pursued quality, not just quantity of life. They listened, seemed to understand, and themselves identified his frailty, deterioration over the last year, and decline in his quality of life. However they strongly objected to us making him “not for attempted resuscitation.” As the end of the week approached I felt uncomfortable about the lack of a DNAR order, and about the possibility of this frail gentleman suffering a brutal and undignified exit to the world should his heart stop.

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3 Comments

Posted in Death

Tagged Atul Gawande, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, DNAR, Do not resuscitate, doctor, family, futility, health, Hippocratic Oath, medicine, patient, quality of life

Health, wealth and the centenarian

Posted on May 30, 2012 | 4 comments

Recently I treated and discharged a 101 year old gentleman. Back to his own home. And not a care package in sight.

As a hospital physician I rarely meet this group of older people, living full and independent lives. My view of the over 65s is coloured by my frequent encounters with the most unlucky ones; suffering from chronic disease, dementia, cancer and frailty. But they exist, these sprightly centenarians and in increasing numbers. And even more common are older people with a lot to contribute to society, but in need of a little support in order to maximise their potential. Between now and 2050 the number of people aged 80 years will almost quadruple to 395 million. At that point, there will be more people over 65 than children under 14. Our world is changing, but are we ready for this global silver revolution?

As a broad generalisation “western society,” does not value age, experience and wisdom. Our culture is obsessed with youth and a narrow definition of beauty which has no time for those perceived as “past their prime.” But in the last few weeks I seem to have read an abundance of good news stories about older people doing incredible things. On Saturday Live on BBC R4 I listened in awe and fascination to Mary Hobson who took a degree in Russian in her 60s and now, in her 80s is winning awards for her version of Pushkin.

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4 Comments

Posted in Life

Tagged active ageing, Ageing, ageing well, Centenarian, health, inequality, life, old, Old age, quality of life, social interaction

A Grief Encounter

Posted on May 1, 2012 | 4 comments

Last week was particularly stressful; marked by staff shortages, anguished relatives, conflict over complex discharge processes, and pressure to create beds. The amount of time I spent with each patient on my ward rounds was less that what I, or they, would have wanted but despite coming in early and leaving late there are only so many hours in a day. In weeks like these I often feel guilty as I leave work that I am unable to give more time to those patients and relatives facing the end of life.

More than many other people I know, I am acutely aware of the fragility of life.

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4 Comments

Posted in Death

Tagged C. S. Lewis, compassion, death, doctor, empathy, grief, health, life, medicine, patient, sympathy, time

Tag Archives: health

Patients not passports

More doctors should engage with arts and health

An invitation to An Evening with Death

Can we find the spirit of ’45 in 2013?

The human touch

Life in my shoes

How to die: CPR and the concept of futility

A Grief Encounter

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