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My writing, all in one place. Articles, opinion and analysis on medicine, healthcare and the NHS.
Archive
BMJ
DAUK co-chair Dr Ellen Welch provided commentary in the national media on the impact on GPs of the rollout of weight-loss treatment. Her comments have been widely reported including by Sky News , The Guardian, The Sun, The Mirror, and The Independent.
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Tide of abuse against NHS staff - joint letter raising concerns
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Survival requires improvements to the GP contract A report from the Nuffield Trust, published in March, described the general practice partnership model in England as “withering” and called for urgent government action to revive it
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Comment in news exclusive by Elisabeth Mahase
Read articleMedical Women’s Federation Substack
Women's health doesn't exist in a vacuum—it is shaped by economics too. For the Medical Women's Federation, I've reviewed 'It's a Rich Man's World', a book that explores the financial gender gap and how life events such as marriage, motherhood and menopause can affect women's long-term financial security.
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Read more about the reason GPs are taking action to hand back non funded work
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The Doctors’ Association UK has sent a new book written by its past co-chair, Dr Ellen Welch, to every Member of Parliament and to the chairs of NHS integrated care boards. The aim: putting general practice at the top of every manifesto in this 2024 election year. The book, Why Can't I See My GP – The past, present and future of general practice, published on 8 February, does not mince words. It outlines the current problems in general practice, how it has reached this point, and what needs to be done about it.
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Wes Streeting’s plan to introduce league tables of the ‘best’ and worst performing NHS providers knocked me for six. Listening to the news on the radio during the school run yesterday morning, I couldn’t help but to compare the proposal to Ofsted’s school league tables – in particular the significant human impacts such ranking systems have. Ruth Perry, a headteacher from Reading took her own life last year after Ofsted inspectors dropped the grading of her school from ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’.
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‘I drove into work and suddenly realised I was crying. I got into the work car park and literally couldn’t get out of the car.’ ‘I held myself together and just cracked on and was functioning quite normally until 11am, by which time I had been non-stop for three hours. We were short-staffed, work was piling up and I looked at the workload on the screen and just snapped.’ This is Dr Sarah Jacques, who was working as an NHS GP when her burnout took a turn for the worse in 2022. She left work, drove to the Sussex coast and spent hours contemplating suicide.
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As I gazed at the shelves stocked with antibiotics, Viagra and both oral and topical steroids, I realised all of these medications were freely available to buy alongside the toothpaste and shampoo. It was 2008 and I had just started working as a cruise ship doctor. We were docked in the port of Cozumel in Mexico and I was in a pharmacy there.
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