One cold day in late January 1975, a junior staffer at the Cologne opera house realised with horror that the piano her team had taken out of storage for that night's high-profile concert was the wrong one. Not only was it not the highly-tuned, expensive Bösendorfer concert grand piano the...
My mother had a saying whenever the news proudly proclaimed that scientists had made a major new discovery of what some might call the 'blooming obvious', such as that babies need touch and smiles to thrive. She would roll her eyes, pronounce a loud 'Ha!', and retort, 'Mothers have known...
Anyone in clinical practice knows that wealth impacts health and vice versa. Despite having a healthcare system free at the point of need, the poor still have worse health than the wealthy. [1], [2] We are amid a cost-of-living crisis due in part to the supply chain chaos in the wake...
The Nationality and Borders Bill [1] currently passing through both Houses of Parliament is promoted as a means of stopping small boats from crossing the channel and of breaking up the gangs of people smugglers. The Bill also contains clauses to create prison-like conditions for asylum seekers, holding them away...
Few issues have created such division among health professionals as Covid vaccine mandates. While most NHS staff freely accepted vaccination and are strong advocates for it with their patients and colleagues, a small minority (about five to six per cent) [1] have thus far refused vaccination. Even when the Government...
Shock and disbelief were my first two reactions when I awoke on 24 February to the news that Russia had invaded Ukraine. Horror as I saw residential buildings across the country bombed. Outrage as civilians were trapped by shelling in cities to the south and east of the country. Compassion...
Data is the new gold - the most valuable commodity in the digital world, and the NHS holds a vast amount of this asset. Data about almost every British resident's medical history, demographics, and healthcare interactions. This information is estimated to be worth nearly £10 billion, according to Ernst &...
The traditional image of Florence Nightingale is that of a willowy woman with a white bonnet, dark dress and miraculously clean pinafore, carrying a lamp aloft, mopping fevered brows of adoring, injured soldiers as she walked her rounds at Scutari Hospital. The 'Lady of the Lamp' of popular mythology was...
Whatever the origin of our calling to medicine, nursing or midwifery, one thing we would all agree, as Christians and as health professionals, is that we are required to do the best by our patients, our colleagues and the institutions for which we work. Preferably in that order of priority....
Where is God in a Coronavirus World? John C Lennox , The Good Book Company, 2020, £2.54, 63pp, ISBN: 9781784985691Coronavirus and Christ John Piper , Desiring God, 2020, £4.99, 112pp, ISBN: 9781433573590Virus as a Summons to Faith Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief, and Uncertainty Paternoster Walter Bruggeman ,...