Today, we find out what changes are likely to be made to the Health and Social Care Bill that is currently making its way through Parliament. Much of the Bill as currently written, particularly the proposal to give GPs greater commissioning powers, including powers to commission from the private sector, has been controversial. It is therefore not surprising that a certain amount of negotiation is going to happen before the Bill becomes law. However, it strikes me that none of … Continue reading →

There are many controversies in science, but most of them have a “right answer”. Why should something which has a “right answer” be controversial? Well, it may be because people are simply ignorant of the facts or motivated by competing interests, or it may be that even though there is a right answer out there somewhere, we don’t actually know what it is. A good example of the first kind of controversy is the question of whether passive smoking (otherwise … Continue reading →

A story in today’s news describes a drug addict who has been paid £200 to have a vasectomy, by an organisation that believes that drug addicts should not breed. Now, you could reasonably argue that society would be a better place if drug addicts do not breed. It is likely that their children will not have a good start in life. You could probably come up with counter-arguments to that as well, although the point of this blog is not … Continue reading →

Those of you who follow homoeopathy stories in the blogosphere will be aware that NHS Tayside are currently advertising for a “Specialist Doctor in Homeopathy“. If you are not familiar with this story, and some of the excellent job applications it has generated, you might want to catch up with it here, here, or here (and probably many other excellent blogs as well, apologies to anyone I’ve missed out). I did try applying for the job myself a few days … Continue reading →