hospital
Why there is more Omicron than we know
Yesterday the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced it had identified another 26 Omicron cases, and the total number of…
The joy of French hospital food
After checking me in, the receptionist, who was wearing an overcoat, said: ‘There is no heating in the hotel. The…
The art of negotiating with French nurses
‘Ça va, Monsieur Clarke?’ said a nurse when he noticed I was stirring. It was an effort to speak. ‘Thirsty,’…
The curse of surgical stockings
The porter rolled me off the trolley and on to the bed, wished me a good day and departed. My…
My clairvoyant GP
‘Willie or bum?’ I said to Catriona on the motorway. Everything in my recent medical career has been introduced via…
The beauty of French nurses
I was supine on the slab and a nurse was rigging me up via wires and tubes to machines and…
The magic of Anthony Powell
Every few years I’ve picked up one or other of Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time series…
Children who died of Covid-19 were already seriously ill, new study shows
It has been clear from the start of the Covid-19 crisis – from Wuhan’s experience, before cases were confirmed in…
In praise of French doctors
They made a better job of sorting out my waterworks
Is the PM an example of why those with Covid-19 should be hospitalised earlier?
There is so much to ponder in the prime minister’s interview about how Covid-19 almost killed him. But, in respect…
I was relishing the lockdown a week ago, but now I need urgent hospital treatment
In France the rule for going for a walk stipulates an hour in duration or a kilometre in distance. We…
From a war-zone A&E to hellhole wards, my dispiriting week in an NHS hospital
I am in a good position to report from the NHS frontline, having been in hospital with pneumonia for just…
What the world looked like after my brain haemorrhage
When your mind suddenly goes wonky, you may be the one person who doesn’t realise that there is something wrong…
A timely reminder of what junior doctors actually do – and it's not pleasant
All this week Radio Five Live has been giving us an insight into what it is like not just to…
My surreal Christmas in hospital with a dangerously ill child
My surreal Christmas in hospital with a dangerously ill child
It's not just Ashya King's parents who the authorities despise
My first act upon returning from my holiday was to sign the online petition to have the supremely irritating children’s…
Even near the front line, there were flowers on the ward
It’s the tub of bright red geraniums at the heart of the picture that startles. How did anyone have time…
Visiting Burgundy from my hospital bed
There have been some splendid rumours about my health. According to the most exotic, I was cas-evacked from a hill…
Spectator letters: In defence of women ministers, Handel and lefty sex
Give the women a chance Sir: Melissa Kite’s article about the reshuffle seems downright unfair (‘A misogynistic reshuffle’, 19 July). Whatever…
A night on a hospital ward with Paddy Leigh Fermor
The catheter stung exquisitely when I lay down. So I stood up. All night I stood by my hospital bed,…
I’m hoping and praying for a continuation of potency
I’ve had a medical procedure that is ‘likely’ to leave me impotent. A nurse is coming around dishing out Tramadol,…
Did Hurricane Katrina have an angel of mercy — or an angel of death?
On 28 August 2005 — Sheri Fink’s Day One — Hurricane Katrina reached New Orleans. The National Weather Service warned…
Martin Vander Weyer: In my hospital bed, I saw the future of the NHS
I blamed the pheasant casserole, but I did it an injustice. Its only contribution to the drama behind my disappearance…
Matthew Parris: I've been living with a miracle for 60 years
This is probably the most self-indulgent column I’ve written. I hope not to make a habit of it. It’s an…