Category: Medicine
Systemic failures and consequential risks
Conceptual overview: Systemic failures refer to breakdowns that occur within an interconnected set of components or systems, where the malfunction of one element can lead to cascading failures across the entire network. These are not isolated incidents but are often the result of complex interactions between various subsystems, policies, and human actors. The embedded YouTube video contains much of the text in this blog, and may be easier to process. Introduction The National Health Service (NHS) stands as a beaconRead More …
What do urgency and immediacy mean?
If someone is actively slashing their wrists or about to jump from a building, or about to stab someone to death – those are obviously urgent situations. The risk, the evidence and the dire consequences are easy to spot. There is a difference between matters that need immediate attention and those that need urgent attention. All matters that need immediate attention will be considered urgent. However, not all matters that are urgent need immediate attention. The infographic below aims toRead More …
Dream or reality?
In this article I focus mainly on public sector health care consultations. It is an open ‘secret’ that UK public health services are: short of staff, doctors are overworked, many groups of staff are suffering with burnout, clinic sessions are quite time-limited, follow-up visits are few and far between, patients are often not given sufficient time and support to ask questions. Following a concentrated first consultation for between 45 to 60 minutes, it is difficult for patients to remember allRead More …
The Lucy Letby story
Lucy Letby, 33, was convicted of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six new-borns at Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016. To more efficiently navigate this complex article, do expand the TOC button above and click to the area of your interest. The latest speculation is that some who were in senior management could be prosecuted for Corporate Homicide/Manslaughter. Letby was given a whole life sentence. Read the sentencing remarks by the judge. WhyRead More …
Power of medications and prescribing scenarios
In this post I will spend some time understanding the power of medications, then extract some fundamental principles from the GMC’s guidance on prescribing (April 2021). I then analyse two real-world scenarios in prescribing that I have experienced and reference each against the GMC’s guidance. The power of medications Medicines are powerful ‘chemicals’. How? A few milligrams – thousandths of a gram – can have powerful effects on the body’s organs. 20 mg of citalopram is 7 ten thousandths ofRead More …