The emotional labour of care
“Not a day goes by without someone …claiming that the NHS has put professionals before patients for too long, or that public service propagates professional complacency or that the threat of competition or prison is needed to improve care…” Jonathon Tomlinson reminds us why care is central to the role of health professionals.
How to save the NHS
“In essence it’s a guide to how to become a politically engaged citizen. It would appear that we are only going to be able to save the NHS if we can save democracy while we’re at it.” Jonathon Tomlinson reviews NHS SOS.
Competition, choice and quality in general practice
“The formulation of the patient as a ‘rational chooser’ underpins contemporary political policy, but is contradicted by studies about the experience of illness, the nature of suffering, the practice of care and the wishes of patients.” Jonathon Tomlinson explains why ‘patient choice’ fails to understand what patients really want.
Loneliness
“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for and deserted by everybody” Mother Theresa I am always early for my doctors appointment. I cannot imagine how anyone could be late for a doctors appointment, even though I know that lots of doctors, including mine, often […]
Am I an extremist?
Last night I debated with journalist Ian Birrell on BBC Radio 3 Nightwaves The question was, ‘Is nostalgia for the idea of an NHS inhibiting necessary, clear-eyed debate?’ NHS workers are united on 2 fronts, The need for care to be based on need and a dislike of constant interference by government BMJ I believe that there […]
The irreversible process of privatisation of the NHS
Statutory Instrument 257: NHS commissioning regulations 2013 Subsidiary to the Health and Social Care Act 2012 Guide to the content of SI 257 which will enable the process of privatisation and make it irreversible (unless England leaves the EU and World Trade Organisation) The entry into force of the Health and Social Care Act Clause 75 […]
Urgent new threat to the NHS - 5 ways you can help
Right now, the government is trying to sneak through secondary legislation (under Section 75 of the Health & Social Care Act) to force virtually every part of the NHS to be opened up to *compulsory* competitive markets, open to the private sector. We have just over a month to stop them, and we need to […]
Listening and measuring
Jonathon Tomlinson writing on Abetternhs’s blog argues that the bureaucracy attached to the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is damaging the patient-doctor relationship: “Much of what is really important, the ability to listen seriously and have meaningful conversations with patients is being lost by the demand that every interaction is measured…”