I was speaking to a friend and mentee yesterday who is currently in the midst of a covid outbreak in a low-middle income country with an arguably fragile-at-best healthcare infrastructure, high levels of poverty and rurality, low levels of literacy, and significant dependence on colonial structures. He and I spoke, both of us from our … Continue reading On Aid, Fatigue, and Building Broken Wells →

I was recently privileged to have had a series of email exchanges with Physician-Anthropologist Eugene T. Richardson, an associate professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard. I had come across one of his lectures online and was captured by the clarity and sense with which he approached as complex a subject  as the … Continue reading On Coloniality during a Pandemic; adding insult to injury →

I sat down to write this reflection whilst listening to Tchaikovsky’s Hymn of the Cherubim. Not in some fanciful cosmopolitan sense, that I should affect a bourgeoisie-esque romantic countenance, but rather, because a very prominent academic coach on twitter had suggested that listening to classical music helped him write; and I figured it couldn’t hurt, … Continue reading On Medicine, Pain, and Illich →

Pee Ehn Eeh Ess - Penis “Oh for fucks sake, stop faking it” I remember thinking it. I didn’t say it. Maybe someone else did. I’m not quite sure. Jim (not his real name) my preceptor, grimaced knowingly at me and indicated I should watch. He gave her the hardest trapezius squeeze I had seen … Continue reading On P(e)NESes →

“better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer” Sir William Blackstone famously said in the 18th century.Later it become eponymously known as Blackstone’s ratio despite originating from the writings of Sir John Fortescue, the 15th century English chief justice, in his ‘De Laudibus Legum Angliae’ . Sir Fortescue put it that "one would … Continue reading On euthanasia and the social contract →

I am touched by the strength and integrity of many of my colleagues who have written letters to the editor at the Journal of Paramedic Practice. This was in response to the recent JPP commentary piece by marketing managers of NHS ambulance services who had attempted (rather unsuccessfully I might add) to defend the abhorrent … Continue reading On Shame and Hope →

    Manel; noun – an all-male panel My Dear friend Dr Segun Olusanya recently tweeted a question which can be summarised as “As a black man, should I abdicate my place on a manel for a woman, or should I remain there to represent people of colour?” Such a poignant question which tugs at … Continue reading On the Brokerage of Social Currency →

Is Civil Disobedience a responsibility of the modern healthcare professional?    In general, when physicians believe a law is unjust, they should work to change the law. In exceptional circumstances of unjust laws, ethical responsibilities should supersede legal obligations” - American Medical Association, 2002   Do healthcare professionals have a responsibility to disobey a state … Continue reading On the Responsibility for Civil Disobedience in Healthcare →

Update: Since posting this, Nurse Ratchet seems to have unfortunately liked a few more tweets supporting her prior position of defensiveness and aggression. I've left the post below here for posterity and reflection. I think it is important to see that people can do the harm others and be victims themselves; that this does not excuse … Continue reading On Power and Pride – Part 2 →

Today scrolling through my twitter feed I came across this post by a registered nurse in the United States. I thought I might explain why I found it upsetting. This attempt at humour (and a worryingly successful one considering how many times it has been retweeted) is not dissimilar to the jests of other healthcare … Continue reading On Power and Pride →