John Launer News Today

Doctor activists are in the news. Sarah Benn, a former GP from Birmingham, has had her medical licence suspended for five months after being arrested for taking part in peaceful protests by Just Stop Oil.1 Medical members of the Extinction Rebellion movement have served jail sentences for taking part in peaceful protests about the climate emergency: they now face disciplinary hearings to determine whether they’ll be struck off.2 It’s tempting to think that medical activism is new, but it isn...

Trolls are imaginary creatures in Scandinavian folklore who are dim witted, live far from human company, and are generally unpleasant when encountered. In modern slang the word refers to individuals who make themselves disagreeable on social media by persistently responding to other people’s posts in negative ways, ranging from discourtesy to threats and intimidation. If you write for the medical press and try to maintain a social media presence it’s almost impossible to avoid trolls. Some t...

Some time ago I received a hospital appointment that I wasn’t expecting. I’d seen the consultant only a few weeks previously, so I phoned to inquire why I was being invited back. I discovered that it was for a review clinic, run by a specialist nurse. I was rather pleased and delayed a planned break to attend. In my experience both as a health professional and as a patient, clinics run by nurses are good news. Nurses tend to be more systematic in their clinical reviews, often seem more atten...

For several years I worked in an educational department called a performance unit. We supported doctors who were perceived to have performance problems, which sometimes showed itself as rudeness to patients or colleagues. Many of those referred to us had health, domestic, financial, or other problems that had triggered this behaviour or amplified it. We tried to help them deal with such problems, while recognising that these didn’t excuse the harm and upset they caused to others. When we tackl...

Seven years ago, a consultant cardiologist stood at the end of my hospital bed with five or six people he never introduced, and he told me I had severe heart failure. Seven years on, I’ve just finished circumnavigating the whole of Wales on foot. I did it in around 80 stages, a total of around 1000 miles across some of the most rugged coastal and hill terrain in Britain. I tell my story in this way for several reasons. Firstly, I want to remind everyone that doctors still break bad news to pat...

I spend quite a lot of my time teaching about narratives in medicine. By narratives I mean stories, although both words can be confusing. The word “story” makes some people think of fairy tales or fiction, while a “narrative” can sound like something long and literary. In fact, either term can potentially mean a statement as short as “I’ve got a bunion” or as long as a life story. I prefer the word “narrative” mainly because it carries more of a sense of flow. (You can turn it ...

“Save the planet!” Most of us sympathise with the slogan. Unwittingly, however, it symbolises a great deal about our scientific ignorance and collective state of mind regarding climate breakdown, the destruction of our current environment, and the extermination of other species. The planet itself, of course, doesn’t need saving. It’s a lump of largely inanimate material that circles our sun along with a number of similar lumps. There’s no reason to imagine that it will stop doing so fo...

All Muslim and Jewish doctors, and many of other faiths or none, will have felt tormented by the recent horrific events in Israel and Gaza. I share with many colleagues not only a sense of despair at the inhumanity of these events but also one of helplessness, in the face of the unfathomably destructive forces underlying them. Anyone with connections to the region will have been especially affected. I have relatives on one side of the border between Israel and the Palestinian territories, as wel...

Reflection is all the rage. Medical students are asked to write reflections on their encounters with patients. Junior doctors in some specialties have to enter these in their electronic portfolios. The documents we have to fill in for our annual appraisals include space for written reflections on the year’s achievements. In some circumstances—for example, with significant events or complaints—these may be compulsory. Who could possibly object? No patient wants to be seen by a doctor who is...

One evening this summer I found myself at a traditional wooden inn in the Japanese town of Mori-machi, an hour’s drive from the medical university at Hamamatsu. There was a table spread with trays of sushi and tempura, along with bottles of wine and sake. We’d all just come from the local primary care clinic, an immaculate modern building three times the size of most British health centres and splendidly equipped. There were seven of us around the table, including the professor and assistant...