Today it is a year since my #hairhack, that’s one full rotation of the sun and probably my least hirsute one yet. I wanted to write a blog post, partly to share some learning and mark a year on, but mostly to update on the two causes that I shaved my head for in the […]
I feel I should start this post with a disclaimer, I spent my entire childhood being reminded that I should stop and think before I spoke! Never one for subtlety, it really was a hard won skill to not just want to blurt out the first thoughts that came into my head, to fill the […]
This format is one I’ve used on my personal blog a number of times, I write a letter to my niece each year on her birthday, so I thought I would try it here because what I have to say is personal opinion, gut not evidence, and reflections in response to a number of colleagues […]
Dear Libbie, It’s now a few weeks since you turned five and having spent the day together I decided that I’d better revisit the letter on your birthday tradition! So what more can I offer after this from your third birthday and this from your fourth! The big change in the last year is that […]
Yesterday the healthcare world was awash with gleeful excitement as NHS England announced the 29 ‘vanguard’ sites, chosen to develop new ways of delivering integrated care. Last week I was chatting with Annie C, Helen K and others about the increasing use of military language in the #NHS: Then a few days later Clare Gerada […]
Last night I posted this tweet and what happened next was as surprising to me as it’s content! This was after an entire day of media reporting of the #Kirkup report; it’s publication had been imminent for some time. You can download and read The Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation here. For those of you […]
Yesterday the Care Quality Commission published its inspection report into Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. Those of you who are regulars here will know this is a Trust I have a particular interest in via the JusticeforLB campaign. LB, Laughing Boy, died a preventable death in their ‘care’ in July 2013 and we’ve yet to […]
First blog here in an age, so happy new year everyone! This week has seen the publication of two reports into the appalling standards of care for learning disabled people in the UK. The National Audit Office published their investigation into the utter failure to transform care, as promised following the abuse at Winterbourne View […]
Last night saw the annual HSJ Awards hit our twitterstreams. Billed as ‘the largest celebration of healthcare excellence in the UK, highlighting the most innovative and successful people and projects in the sector’, the photo above (via Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust) clearly shows the scale of the ‘celebration’. Alastair McLellan, the HSJ […]
Today it’s two years since my Dad died, a marker of sorts, just another day, and an anniversary all at once. I’m never quite sure how to mark anniversaries, does your death day deserve a celebration? In a culture that so readily celebrates birth days, why not death days too? I mused this quite a […]