John Launer News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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’t. There’s a distinguished history of doctors, some of them eminent, putting their medical care...

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 topics are guaranteed to bring them out in battalions. Depending on its scale and tone, being on the ...

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 attentive than doctors, and are more inclined to learn from patients and …

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 tackled them on their manner or behaviour and suggested that they improve these they sometimes asked, “...

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 patients in the crassest ways, without either privacy …