Liberating the NHS?

The most anticipated Department of Health White Paper for some time, was published in July 2010. Entitled, Equity and excellence: liberating the NHS it sets out the Government’s long-term vision for the future of the National Health Service. It places patients ‘at the heart’, in charge of making decisions about their care. This means focusing on clinical outcomes instead of bureaucratic targets and ‘empowering’ health professionals to give those on the front line, such as GPs, more control.

Protecting the vulnerable or creating a climate of mistrust?

My contribution to Who's risk is it anyway? 
An Institute of Ideas and Wiltshire Council Safeguarding conference. 
March 2010

Cast your mind back to December 2008 and the Old Bailey trial of Baby P’s abusers.

Undermining nursing care by degrees

The proposal that nurses in England should be university graduates will further reduce the level of basic nursing skills.

Alternative Medicine: Should We Swallow It?

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is an increasingly acceptable part of the repertory of healthcare professionals and is becoming more and more popular with the public. It seems that CAM has come of age - but should we swallow it?

CAM: Junk Science or Genuine Alternative?

Despite a growing public demand for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and its widespread acceptance in the NHS, there is a backlash among many doctors and others who reject it as unscientific.

Le cas « crânien » : Examen de la thérapie crânio-sacrée

A French translation of my critical essay on Cranio-Sacral therapy can be accessed below:

You're a mother? You must be mad

When I started work, first as a midwife and then as a health visitor, in the early 80s, I was always on the lookout for mothers suffering from "baby blues" or the extremely rare "puerperal psychosis".