hospital
Why can no one find the eye hospital?
‘Where’s the eye hospital?’ shouted pretty much everyone standing outside a building signposted eye hospital in Irish. ‘An tAonad Oftailmeolaiochta’…
The healing power of wine
What goes best with a broken rib? The answer, I think, is any drink you enjoy that will not make…
Me vs the plumber
My one finished bathroom featured a sink so small I could only wash one hand in it at a time,…
Do charities really deserve my mum’s data?
A letter from Archie Norman, chairman of M&S, popped into my inbox after I complained that I had run over…
My parents and the sorry state of the NHS
Pushing through a crowded hospital corridor behind my father, I heard a voice calling me. Then a nurse grabbed me…
Will I ever get my HRT?
The novelty of living in a place where a policeman called Ambrose lives in a house whose door you can…
Are conspiracy theories just conspiracy therapy?
At the Centre for Rare Diseases, the car park was full and lots of people were milling about. I pulled…
Am I having a heart attack?
Nairobi Some of our medical practitioners in Kenya advertise their services on street corners. ‘Bad omens, lost lovers, broken marriage,…
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…
