Just watched the monstrous RFK in front of the Senate Finance Committee claiming he is ‘taking the politics out of science’ whilst doing the precise opposite. My God, the suffering and death that appalling man is wreaking.

My letter in today’s Times newspaper…

Now tagging Bea herself! @drelvey.bsky.social

A lot of blue sky. Happy Wednesday.

How can Labour possibly get to the stage where they get something like this so very wrong? Are they not getting good advice or don’t they listen to it?

My father spent his final 3 years in an Elderly Mentally Infirm home. The care staff were from Uganda and worked impressively as a team. Dad received truly excellent care which retained his dignity and love of life despite worsening dementia. They came to his funeral, sang beautifully, hugged us. 😢

Madness is mild! I’ve a relative in a Care Home. I’d say 25% of the staff are recently arrived from overseas and they’re lovely and here. Whereas recruiting locally drew a blank. It’s frightening to think where we will be by the time / if we need care. We already know the NHS locally is 🥵😬

observer.co.uk/news/interna... Awful. How on earth was this allowed to happen? It feels like those of us who have spent their careers in public service are being made fools of. And it’s dangerous for democracy.

As the news report that US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth had a second signal chat in which he shared detailed military plans with his family One wonders if he was inspired by Mission Gainsborough from this episode of Blackadder Goes Forth 👀

Have you ever seen anything like that? (Masters golf. Rory McIlroy. Grand slam at the 11th attempt. One of the greatest sporting days ever).

Totally. Until and unless guidelines and pathways are explicitly populated with decision points and choices, SDM is arguably a bit of a losing battle.

Once you start looking, it’s tramlines not guidelines everywhere. Inexorably leads to overdiagnosis and overtreatment.

"By flooding search results and web crawlers with pro-Kremlin falsehoods, the network is distorting how large language models process and present news and information” www.axios.com/2025/03/06/e...

I see tomorrow is Friday. Is Friday going a tariff day, or a some-tariffs day, or a no-tariffs day? Or will it be some other kind of day, like an annex-Greenland day, or a Hannibal-Lecter-wants-to-have-you-for-dinner day, or an Arnold-Palmer-size day, or something else? I just can’t keep track.

Absolutely shameful, utterly unforgivable www.reuters.com/world/us-cut...

I taught my dog to play the trumpet on the London Underground. We went from Barking to Tooting in less than an hour. #dadjokes

Zelensky’s refusal to bow to Trump was a big factor in Trumps first impeachment. Why is mainstream media not talking about this?

youtu.be/D6ouyeycWk8?... It is time for this….

“This is going to take time to rebuild, but today’s starting point is promising” Our GP committee chair @drkatie.bsky.social speaking about the GP contract agreement on BBC Breakfast this morning. www.bma.org.uk/our-campaign...

This wasn’t some liberal holdover. This wasn’t a career bureaucrat. This was someone Trump’s team installed. And even she couldn’t stomach what they were doing. She wasn’t alone. Five more federal prosecutors resigned in protest. Bless their courage!

🔥 Well... this is now over 88,000 signatures! Just one final push to get it over that magic 100,000 and get a parliamentary debate? Why not! Link --> petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...

@trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social, queen of evidence, has done a systematic review of what scant research exists on Physician Associates in the UK. Great work.

The curious case of Sarah and her sinuses, and what it reveals about the lamentable wrong-headedness among the leadership of England's NHS. My piece in this week's @newstatesman.com www.newstatesman.com/politics/hea...

Happy Monday 👍

x.com/lucygoss/sta... This amazing woman is both an NHS oncologist and a world class endurance athlete. And whilst I’ve never met her, she seems like a lovely human being. Please support if you can. Thanks!

In tomorrow's #TalkingMeds, @jonathanunderhill.pharmsky.app welcomes Keele University Honorary Professor Neal Maskrey to discuss his new book, Rebalancing Medicine. Jonny and Neal also reflect on their careers and address how we can meet future healthcare challenges. @stokemacca.bsky.social

Consistent under-appreciation of what primary care can do and an over-estimation of the benefits of shiny bits of technology is a feature of at least the last 20 years of the NHS.

Editor of the BJGP said this about our paper! “The authors have done us an enormous service and this is arguably one of the most important articles we have published in many years” V chuffed!

Not much blue sky today😉

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

The Knitivity scene. 🥰

www.bmj.com/content/387/... Got to be a serious rebalancing of medicine for 21st Century. New readers start here.

Hear hear. So long overdue.

Latest data out today. Essentially a tripledemic or quad-demic still not on the cards because covid low and RSV declining (slowly), but Flu is on a bad trajectory - exceeding last year's peak and no sign of slowing yet.

Sportsperson of the Year (UK) was Keely Hodgkinson. A worthy winner. But I’d still have given it to Jasmin Paris for the first woman ever finishing the Barclay Marathons. And she won the Spine Race outright in 2019 with an all time record beating all the men). And a FT job as a vet, two young kids 😳

Instead of Canada becoming the 51st state, the US should consider becoming an 11th province. Americans would get universal healthcare, parental leave, sensible gun control and fries smothered in cheese curds and gravy.

The nurses in the anticoagulant clinic have been banned from dressing up as Santa’s elves this year. Apparently there’s a pixie ban.

bjgplife.com/rebalancing-... A completely lovely review of my book by the legendary Richard Lehman. £2.49 on Kindle, priced to be accessible to almost everyone. (I’m relying on Spielberg or Redford or Lady Gaga to pick up the film rights) 😉.

I planted a hedge today. And Percie (Van Robin) the almost tame assistant gardener lent a festive hand. ❤️

Western Australia

Sadly, it’s a good time to once again share this amazing infographic that we ran at @science.org more than 7 years ago 🧪 #IDsky www.science.org/content/arti...

www.theauralapothecary.com/aural-apothe... Industrialised medicine has failed. Health systems around the world are struggling. John Seddon explains how health care can be rebalanced. The best hour of learning in many a year. A MUST listen. Especially for that nice Mr Streeting.

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol... Must read. The GMC has placed itself in a dangerous position and risks the safety of the public - a role it was established for in 1858. Never thought I would voluntarily erase myself from the medical register on retirement, but it looks like I will now. 😢

We need full-on Michael Marmot and less belief in shiny toys that offer false hope of “prevention”. I know that’s not a popular position, but improving the health of populations requires doing things that improve the health of the population.

Anybody got any huddled masses?