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Perceptions and Deceptions a personal blog by the editor 22 Apr 2016

The junior doctors in the UK are facing the reality that if they hold steady there is the very real prospect that ‘an elite group of professional people’ can topple a corrupt and dishonest Government and restore the balance of...

Perceptions and Deceptions a personal blog by the editor 9 June 2016

Distractions! I am getting behind my timetable for the on-going story. So let me press on. I shall only comment at the outset that with regard to the Junior Doctors Contract issue in the UK, I do think the government...

Perceptions and Deceptions a personal blog by the editor 15 June 2016

It is recorded that Dr James Hwang arrived at 15:40 and commenced cardiac massage. I wonder why? Of course, the ‘non-essential equipment’ included a cardiac monitor. So no help there. Palpating a pulse in a patient who is convulsing (still)...

Perceptions and deceptions: a personal blog by the editor 5 September 2016

The junior doctors are without doubt the very backbone of the NHS. They span from the newly graduated medical students to the most senior postgraduate trainees who are about to embark on a definitive post as a hospital consultant or...

Editor’s reaction to acid attacks in London

As I travelled to work to day I heard on the radio that there had been five separate “acid attacks” in London last night. It appears that these were all perpetrated by the same assailants and the motivation for the...

Letter from Hong Kong (17 December 2020)

This will be the last ‘Letter from Hong Kong’. I began back in April with a simple message, wear masks.

Gross Negligence Manslaughter in Healthcare: The medico-legal dilemma (part 9) – Informed consent (i)

It is one year ago today that Justice Judianna Barnes sentenced Dr Mak Wan-ling to be incarcerated for three and half years for a crime she did not commit (see parts 1-4 of this blog).

Gross Negligence Manslaughter in Healthcare: The medico-legal dilemma (part 16) – Aggravating factors

The Judge just cannot say, “Lee’s airway and oxygenation were not established or maintained”. This is nonsensical from the perspective of a person trained in medicine. Even more senseless from a person who is not. If Lee’s airway was not established and maintained, how did Lee survive a three-hour operation, albeit in the prone position and without developing any signs of cyanosis?

Perceptions and Deceptions a personal blog by the editor 15 Apr 2016

This is a personal blog. The theme is ‘perceptions and deceptions’ related to professional practice. There is a lifetime of blogging in this theme, but let me move on. Consider that fabulous bit of TV drama where HBO were setting...

Gross Negligence Manslaughter in Healthcare: The medico-legal dilemma (part 4)

I want to return to the case of Dr Mak, who was, from the available evidence, caught up in a miscarriage of justice that arose because of a lack of effective interprofessional communication in the legal process.

Gross Negligence Manslaughter in Healthcare: The medico-legal dilemma (part 23a) – forensic snoring

If a person is snoring that means they are breathing. If they are breathing and their skin is of a normal colour does that not suggest that they are oxygenating the tissues?