“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” T.S. Eliot. May the turning of the year offer time for reflection, and the opportunity for better things for all in 2026.

End of year reading

Love this week for the possibility of “empty days”…

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas!

Excellent piece on Broadcasting House yesterday about the need to include "and Social Care" when introducing / discussing the (UK) Secretary of State for Health... Some thoughts on this disconnect in law, and how the UK approach can learn from Northern Ireland... www.maryguy.com/occasional-b...

Signing off for 2025 with thanks to all our followers, presenters and blog post contributors! Check out the link for what our 2025 looked like - and also our call for papers for hashtag#UACES2026. Best wishes for a restful winter break, and see you in 2026! euhealthgov.org/updates/

Good news!

“I heard a bird sing In the dark of December. A magical thing And sweet to remember. ‘We are nearer to Spring Than we were in September’, I heard a bird sing In the dark of December” - Oliver Herford

Happy to share that I’ve joined @tcddublin.bsky.social Centre for Health Policy & Management as a Research Fellow working on #Sláintecare reform and health system resilience

Sad news to hear that Dorothy Vogel has passed away - such an inspirational woman who, together with her husband Herb amassed an incredible art collection (for the right reasons). “Herb and Dorothy” is well worth watching (also the follow-up, “Herb and Dorothy 50x50”) youtu.be/eiyLAlWR95M?...

Indeed an interesting development

The absolute nightmare of this www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

End of an era. Last teaching day at LJMU. Grateful for some excellent and collegiate colleagues and for working with UG and PG students who will doubtless go on to great things in whatever direction they choose. 1/3

Train reading. Some disclosures have the ability to startle (but sadly not surprise). Needless to say huge benefits came from this academic shortsightedness regarding a very prominent woman in law.

A brief EU law-themed (teaching) playlist... GNR - Portugal Na CEE www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjCx...

Proofs!

Autumn 2025

The utter disgrace of this. Nearly 150,000 aged 90 and above wait 12 hours in England’s A&Es each year www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

📣New article! We use publicly-available NHS referral data to outline the private healthcare market for NHS patients 2008-2024, and to review NHS patient choice policies since New Labour. (1/3) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Austria, autumn 2025.

Interesting discussion of Clemens Auer’s #EHFG2025 keynote - in which the dots were joined unequivocally between #AI and #populism as threats to #solidarity and #European #SocialContract

Excellent plenary yesterday on "Rethinking Solidarity in health: healing Europe's fractured social contract" #EHFG2025 (1/n)

“Trauma doesn’t respect a project’s timeline” - excellent panel discussions in the “Solidarity in action on mental health and psychosocial support - Learnings from people affected by the conflict in Ukraine” #EHFG2025

“Gender runs across all the determinants of health” - much food for thought in the first session #EHFG2025

Excellent news! The incredible #StudyAbroad opportunity offered by #Erasmus should never have been taken away. inews.co.uk/news/politic...

This is so positive! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

An important and insightful, if thoroughly depressing, read about UK higher education. wonkhe.com/blogs/roll-u...

Delighted to see this Symposium of @jlme-journal.bsky.social on Public Health, Markets, and Law is now out. Many thanks to @minacompetition.bsky.social and Imelda Maher! My article considers #hospitals #stateaid and #SGEI www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Monday morning writing retreat

Grand #UACES2025 walking tour of Liverpool this afternoon - taking in reconciling the city’s slave trade history, football, and a certain boyband… Thanks Lauren for the group photo!

Looking forward to talking about #solidarity and catching up with EU health governance researchers and others including the fantastic @uaces.bsky.social team from tomorrow in Liverpool! See below for the @euhealthgov.bsky.social sessions if you’re heading to #UACES2025! 👇

Two more offerings made to the gods of academic publishing…

New open-access on FirstView: "On The Quiet Power of National Decisions: Hospitals, State Aid, and Services of General Economic Interest" by @maryjguy.bsky.social, part of the upcoming symposium "Public Health, Markets, and Law." #Healthcare #Hospitals www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Out-of-office on for summer break. Orange lilies for joy.

Proud to share this new publication on #hospitals #stateaid and #SGEI in the excellent Symposium on “Public Health, Markets, and Law” with @jlme-journal.bsky.social edited by Dr Mina Hosseini and Imelda Maher. Some key findings follow! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Great to see this new article by @minacompetition.bsky.social in @jlme-journal.bsky.social! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Good news!

Catching up on the NHS 10 Year Plan as I finalise a paper on patient choice (unexpectedly timely?!). The promise of a “new patient choice charter” will need more detail… Are we in the territory of “whither the NHS Constitution”? (1/2)

Martina Geiger-Gerlach — Eyes wide shut, trying to photograph the European Dream

#ThrowbackThursday 50 years ago today there was a referendum in the UK…

You never regret standing up for yourself.

Happy #EuropeDay! And to think it took until the final draft for the famous reference to #solidarity to appear in the Schuman Declaration… References to federalism* could have had a rather different legacy… (“…l’Europe doit être organisée sur une base fédérale”)

Yorkshire, April 2025

Gorgeous day in North West England

Looking forward to talking about #solidarity #health, and what the Brexit bus and “four categories of European healthcare” can tell us later today @slsauk.bsky.social @livunislsj.bsky.social #slsa2025 www.maryguy.com/the-four-cat...

Great discussion and questions today at #slsa2025 for my presentation on #solidarity #EU #health #freemovement #citizenship. Tomorrow I’m talking about another chapter of my forthcoming monograph with the health law and bioethics stream!