NHS
The ambulance service is in a state of emergency
Tom leant back against the bathroom wall, his face streaked with blood from the nosebleed, eyes half shut like an…
Farewell notebook
So we are all going to have to pay for fatties to have stomach bands and bypasses, are we? It…
The betrayal of Wales
Devolution has left my country with catastrophic misgovernment
The big fat lie about cholesterol
Though I’m not generally big on banning stuff, there’s one substance I would prohibit without a moment’s hesitation — probably on…
Breast advice
Why isn’t there a proper service to show new nursing mothers how to feed their babies?
Letters
We need religion Sir: Roger Scruton (‘Sacred hunger’, 31 May) describes a reason, dare I say a ‘purpose’, for religion in…
Farage the moderniser
There are many words that you might associate with Nigel Farage, but moderniser probably isn’t one. Yet the Ukip leader…
Heavy mob
Why slimming clubs don’t deserve public money
Support
When I asked my husband why paramedical professions were given to remaking the language in strange ways, he replied in…
When brave is better than good
Oskar Morgenstern grew up in Vienna, John von Neumann in Budapest. Clearly the same Austro-Hungarian intellectual spirit which gave rise…
Vape alarm
The e-cigarette means that tobacco is going the way of the top hat. So what is the medical establishment’s problem with it?
Life after Aids
In the West, the deadliest thing about HIV may now be the stigma
Power to the people
Alan Johnson cannot accept that the best days of the British working class are over
Dear Mary
Q. Our son, aged l6, has a medical condition which, although not life-threatening, requires surgery by a specialist to pre-empt…
Transparency is the Tories’ greatest legacy to the NHS
Pinned to the wall of Jeremy Hunt’s office in the Department of Health is an A1 piece of paper detailing…
Making the best of an imperfect world: a vision of the future from my hospital bed
I blamed the pheasant casserole, but I did it an injustice. Its only contribution to the drama behind my disappearance…
Portrait of the week
Home The government announced proposals for the National Health Service, including a law to criminalise wilful neglect by doctors and…
Portrait of the week
Home EDF Energy said it would put up prices by 3.9 per cent. BT Sport spent £897 million on the rights…
They still don’t get it
Ministers are finally acting on my warnings about health tourism. But they aren’t doing enough
Tackling health tourism
In February, an NHS surgeon came to The Spectator’s offices to discuss a piece he felt it was time to…
Letters
Party politics Sir: I don’t think it is true that I would be unhappy in any party, as Ross Clark…
Hard to swallow
Hospital food isn’t a joke. It’s a scandal
Letters
Some doctors write Sir: Professor Meirion Thomas (‘Dangerous medicine’, 17 August) may be an excellent surgeon but he is uninformed…
Dangerous medicine
A senior surgeon says Jeremy Hunt’s NHS reforms will do more harm than good
Herodotus on 111
The NHS 111 line, designed to deal with problems that do not count as emergencies, is in financial and organisational…
