Published in The Guardian (May 22nd, 2013) My daughter was ill at the weekend. Just a heavy cold; but when your child has profound and multiple learning disabilities, […]
Health / Policy
A helpline in crisis and doctors who refuse to put patients’ interests above their own
Published in The Daily Mail (May 6th, 2013) For weeks there have been many stories emerging of patients left hanging on the phone, fearful or in pain; urgent […]
Health / Policy / Politics
The man they couldn’t hang
Published in The Independent on Sunday (31st March, 2013) When the National Health Service rose like a merciful phoenix from the wreckage of a war-torn nation, its founder […]
Aid / Health / Policy / Politics / Social care
Overseas aid: an indefensible ringfence
Published in The Guardian (March 14th, 2013) One of the first rules of opposition is to avoid rash promises that can come back to throttle you in government. […]
Health / Policy / Politics
Cover-up: the public are sickened by such cynicism
Published in The Daily Mail (February 22nd, 2013) Julie Bailey is a heroine of our age. She is the cafe owner from Stafford who saw her elderly mother […]
Health / Police / Policy / Politics / Technology
Why does no-one ever take the blame any more?
Published in The Daily Mail (February 13th, 2013) When Nick Clegg dropped into Hampshire to boost his party’s campaign in the crucial Eastleigh by-election, he spoke passionately about […]
Health / Policy
Victims of our blind faith in the NHS
Published in The Independent (February 7th, 2013) It is just seven months since the NHS was presented to a baffled world as one of the great features of […]
Health / Policy
NHS privatisation fears? Grow up
Published in The Guardian (December 21, 2012) Nearly one in five patients having hip replacements and hernia repairs are handled by private companies, thanks to reforms introduced by the […]
Disability / Health / Policy
What the NHS needs even more than money – a dose of kindness
Published in The Daily Mail (December 5th, 2012) Even today, 19 years on, I can still remember every second of the day my world crashed in. It was […]
Disability / Health / Policy
Prejudice in the NHS is killing people with disabilities
Published in The Guardian (September 15th, 2012) Imagine it was your son or daughter, your brother or sister, your mother or father. They arrive home from hospital and […]
Health / Policy
The night that set back NHS reform by years
Published in The Daily Mail (August 4th, 2012) The rest of the world may have been perplexed, but it was 20 minutes that made Britain feel better about […]
Health / Policy
Why Danny Boyle’s rose-tinted homage to the NHS was so damaging
Published in the London Evening Standard (July 30th, 2012) The reviews are in, and the near-unanimous verdict on Danny Boyle’s extraordinary opening ceremony was that it was a […]