hospital
My parents prefer the NHS to me
The US marine left his long johns down the back of an armchair and the next guest complained that she…
Has the funeral director been sizing up the BB?
The funeral director down the lane is also the local taxi service, which partly explains why I see him drive…
My boyfriend, the hedgehog hero
‘I’m making a hedgehog rescue ladder,’ said the builder boyfriend, who was on his knees in the farmyard, drilling a…
Life’s little graces: Small Rain, by Garth Greenwell, reviewed
An unnamed narrator, confined to hospital with a torn aorta, reminisces about his past life in Bulgaria, his love of poetry and the happy domesticity he shared with his partner
My B&B’s first celebrity guest
The TV talent show star was due to arrive at 5 p.m., and would be checking into our house long…
Have I met my riding friends?
The sound of the little cart on the lane came first and then the sight of the pony clip-clopping towards…
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…
