A dangerous choice is being exposed alongside the COVID-19 pandemic – and that is the choice to censor doctors and scientists with views that dissent from the mainstream narrative. Not only are their views and opinions being censored, but they are losing their livelihood, being forced to resign and being removed from positions of leadership, influence and power. In Ireland alone, I am aware of 3 doctors and 1 scientist who have been hung out to dry for daring to…
This blog was first published on Kevin MD and shares some of my journey and views on the topic of Assisted Suicide. When I was training as a surgeon, I was pro assisted suicide. I believed it was a humane act of kindness and compassion. I imagined myself to be in the place of the other and at times felt if that was me, I’d rather be dead than live with that condition or this condition. I understand how easy…
It is a sad reflection and indictment on human society that everywhere we look today there is corruption to such an extent that it is considered ‘normal’ and no big deal. The UK recently voted for a Prime Minister who is factually known to regularly lie, mislead and whose misdemeanours would have previously rendered him unsuitable for such a position, or if discovered after the event, would result in resignation. The days of politicians resigning for being involved in corrupt…
I have witnessed many changes within medicine over the last 30 years – one of which has been the increasing fragmentation of medicine despite the increased focus on the importance of holistic medicine. This fragmentation is across the board and exists on many levels. Fragmented Healthcare As our knowledge of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, pathophysiology, pharmacology and the many varieties of illness and disease has expanded, it was recognised that it was not feasible for all doctors to be expert…
For the last three years the airwaves have been filled with talk about #Brexit. It has dominated political discourse, radio and TV discussions and programmes and coffee room chats – meanwhile other topics of great concern have been side-lined and unaddressed like the rising levels of poverty, the lack of funds for NHS and education to name a few. Now we are in the midst of a Tory leadership contest – dominated by the #Brexit discourse and who is going…
I loved studying medicine as a medical student. I was so curious to know how the body worked – how this bit interacted with that bit, what was needed to get us to move a leg, speak, laugh, digest food, breathe etc – everything that we do easily and naturally became a deeper mystery to be unpacked and solved. Each subject was rich and deep with the inner workings of the body – in anatomy the various roadmaps of the…
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Lucy Dahill for her ‘StayintheLoopwithLucy’ show. I shared some of my story and experiences and some of the understandings of esoteric medicine and how it can potentially work very well with conventional medicine. Grab a cuppa and have a listen and see if you agree. Feel free to comment. Go to StayintheloopwithLucy and click on the sound cloud player. …
What do you think of when you hear the word medicine? Perhaps it includes doctors, nurses, pills, prescriptions, operations, surgery, wounds, illness and disease, curing and healing, science, study, university? But whatever your picture of medicine – does it include Love? I’m not a betting person, but I reckon for most who work within the profession that love is not top of the list, or even near the top….in fact it probably doesn’t feature on the list at all! Indeed,…
Recently the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) decreed that people in a same-sex relationship could not be a full member of the Church and their children could not be baptised. They also cut ties with the Church in Scotland as it moved towards a more liberal approach to same sex relationships. Rev Stafford Carson, a key protagonist of this new policy, declared the church needed to be clear it did not approve of same-sex relationships, and that such behaviour and…
On the 26th May 2018, Ireland voted a resounding YES to repeal the 8th Amendment by 66.4% for YES and 33.6% for NO. No narrow margins there, no debate or quibble or calls for a re-count – the unequivocal result is Ireland has said YES – Repeal the 8th Amendment. The 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution gave equal right to the life of the dependent unborn foetus and the life of the woman upon whom that foetus was dependent.…
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The GMC’s decision to pursue erasure of Dr Bawa-Garba does not protect the public but harms both it and the medical profession.
The GMC’s choice to appeal the Medical Practitioner’s Tribunal decision regarding Dr Bawa-Garba demonstrates a deep lack of understanding of human beings, human failings, the NHS, mistakes in the NHS and the fact that a fear-based, protectionist, condemnatory and punishing approach to medical regulation does not protect the public but leads to greater harm both for patients and doctors. The Dr Bawa-Garba case has sparked intense debate on the News, twitter, Facebook and in medical forums and coffee rooms across…
Have you ever considered how often you do things just to fit in, to go along with friends or family, even though you feel it’s something you’d rather not do? Many of us have, at one time or another, done exactly that – often in teenage years we succumb to peer pressure to fit in with whatever is the trend of the moment, be it drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, taking drugs, being sexually active, wearing a certain style or fashion,…
I recently read this article in the Guardian entitled “When healthy eating turns into a disease” which focuses on the rise of a condition called ‘orthorexia nervosa’, a term used to describe a ‘fixation on righteous eating’ or ‘healthy eating’. The prefix ‘ortho’ is derived from the Greek to mean ‘right’, ‘straight’ or ‘correct’ and hence the focus on ‘right eating’. The article describes people with orthorexia as those who adhere to a strict diet based on a certain belief…
What is salvation? I used to wonder what salvation was about – being saved by what, from what, by whom? There were so many questions and so few answers. None of it made much sense to me as a child growing up in the Christian tradition and I came to reject religion and the need for any form of salvation out of hand. Later in life, I questioned my atheistic assertions, read widely in the wisdom traditions and searched high…
Often when the word abuse is used we tend to think of and restrict it to severe forms of physical or sexual abuse. Certainly, whilst these are forms of abuse, what if they are not the whole of abuse but just part of a spectrum of abuse that can vary in its form, severity and outcome? Whilst there can be variance or range in the nature of abuse and its subsequent outcomes, from an energetic perspective the energy of abuse…
We have witnessed horrendous acts of terrorism such as the bombing in Manchester, and the Westminster Bridge and London Bridge attacks in London with the so called ‘Islamic state’ claiming responsibility for the killing and maiming of civilians. In Europe we have recently had the vile attack in Barcelona, and last year we saw the aftermath of a lorry in Nice decimating a public gathering, ruthlessly and barbarically killing people in its path knocking them down like skittles with absolutely…
Every religion in the world thinks that their religion is the true religion. But it is common sense to also say they can’t all be true given the wide variety of different beliefs and the direct contradictions between them. They can’t all be right or true. It is common practice in the modern world to not challenge or critique religious beliefs, recognising that people have the right to hold the religious beliefs of their choosing, providing they are not…
It used to be alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, crisps, bread, pizzas, junk food, indeed any food, for I was a consumer of it all. I thought I was normal. I mean doesn’t everyone eat and drink everything – isn’t that why it’s there? To be consumed. To fill our bellies, to give us pleasure and enjoyment from all the sumptuous tastes and flavours, textures and delicacies. I thought I was enjoying myself. I thought I was enjoying my food – I…
We tend to associate hangovers with drinking too much alcohol – when we wake up with some version of not quite feeling ourselves. We may have more specific symptoms like a headache, brain fog, dry mouth, nausea, vomiting and general malaise – feeling out of sorts and below par. The word hangover can mean ‘something (custom, habit, feeling) that survives from what is past’ as well as the disagreeable physical effects from heavy consumption of alcohol or drugs. So in…
Albert Einstein, the most influential physicist of the 20th century and a world-renowned scientist, was also deeply religious. It was he who said that: ‘science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind’ He recognised the profound interconnectivity of these two disciplines, in the process exposing the futility and utter ignorance and arrogance of those who choose to hold either one supreme. Neither science nor religion alone can provide all the answers to life and the world we…
We recently undertook a survey regarding the attitudes of UK medical schools towards self-care training for medical students. The paper entitled “The Current Status and Attitudes to Self-care Training in UK Medical Schools” was recently published in the Journal of Compassionate Health Care. The survey revealed some conflicting results, that on the one hand recognised the need for and benefit of self-care training, whilst also not fully recognising the responsibility we have for our own healthcare and the harmful impact…
To admit to being religious today, is tantamount to admitting you’re insane, a bit crazy or a fool, especially if you are a scientist who is considered to have some degree of intelligence and discernment. The underlying assumption is that no serious scientist, no truly intelligent human being, no rational, clear thinking person could be ‘religious.’ The word itself has become so tainted, so dirty, so blood stained that people run in the opposite direction and boldly declare, “I’m spiritual…
Have you ever stopped to consider who you are or what defines you? Is your self-worth or self-esteem wrapped up in those two little letters ‘Dr’? How would you feel if they were removed? Would you know who you are without them? As medical students we work hard, study long hours, sit tons of exams and tests, to ultimately prove we have what it takes – that we are intelligent enough, to be a doctor. Parents burst with pride on…
E=mc2 is the most famous equation in the world – yet the world chooses to remain woefully and wilfully ignorant of the meaning and implications of Einstein’s discovery in everyday life. Why is this? Before addressing that question let us first unpack E=mc2 in order to understand what it is actually saying. Interestingly, when Einstein first published his paper in 1905 presenting the relationship between mass and energy, he did so using the equation L=mv2, where L represented the ‘living’…
“How could you be so stupid?” “You are so stupid” “You’re supposed to know better” “You’re a doctor for f!*#s sake” “You’re supposed to be intelligent” “You’re not supposed to make mistakes” “You stupid b#*!h” “Why did you…?” “Why didn’t you…?” “This is your worst nightmare come true…” “This isn’t part of the plan” “What are you going to do?” This was part of the internal dialogue that followed the light blue lines on the home test kit confirming what…
This blog was first published under KevinMD as Technology in health care: Is medicine really evolving? Evolution is part of life, something we accept as a fact and evidenced by the changes we see and know compared to hundreds of years ago. No one can dispute the great technological advances that have been made – transport has been revolutionized from the animal power of horse and cart to the mechanized systems of train, plane and automobile we have today. Communication…
This blog was first published on KevinMD It is a common experience to feel that our body has let us down when we get sick. We may feel it is broken or flawed in some way and if only it was better designed we wouldn’t have to suffer illness and disease. Likewise, we tend to consider illness and disease as something bad that has happened to us and which we associate with suffering of some kind, be it physical, psychological,…
I have read a few articles recently about the oppression of women in Ireland; the refusal of the Irish and Northern Irish governments to recognise the right of a woman to have agency over her own body, her reproductive rights and the fundamental right for her to choose whether to allow a pregnancy to proceed or not should she choose to have an abortion. Being pregnant out of wedlock led to young women, in the not so distant past, being…
This blog was first published on KevinMD as “We are human beings before we are doctors”. Mental illness has long been associated with shame and stigma. Although progress has been made through the efforts of global celebrities like Stephen Fry and many others to de-stigmatize mental illness – many are still ashamed to admit to it and the stigma is far from being annihilated. Nowhere is this stigma more entrenched than within the Medical profession itself. A fact that should…
The FIRST (Flexibility in Duty Hour Requirements for Surgical Trainees)1 trial randomized American surgical residency programs to one of two arms – either to continue with their current standard restricted hours practice of 80 hours per week with time for breaks/rest and a limit to hours of work at any one time, or to have ‘flexible’ hours which involved removing current restrictions on hours worked at any one time and waiving the need for breaks etc., whilst somehow maintaining the…