Some musings

I heard this week of a community in Cornwall who have made a video of them all singing a song in the hope that it might attract a new GP to their village. Well, I thought, that seems like a good idea – one worth copying! So, since I work in a GP practice in…

OUR LOVE IS NOT A RED, RED ROSE –A VALENTINE’S DAY POEM FOR SOMERSET SUPPORTERS Our love is NOT a red, red rose,Nor is it one that’s white,And daffodils, of yellow hue,Do not our hearts excite. Our fervour’s not for foxes andOur yearning’s not for bears,Our longing’s not for martlets andOur passion’s not for pears.…

Is it just me or does anyone else feel guilty about eating baby spinach, given how undoubtedly brief their apparently mild and tender lives must have been? Be that as it may, today I went shopping in order to buy a bag of the aforementioned green leafed comestible. No sooner had I left the shop…

WARNING: The following blog contains spoilers – please don’t read if you’ve not yet watched all three series of ‘Happy Valley’ but think that one day you might. It’s finally over. This week the BBC aired the final ever episode of Sally Wainwright’s excellent TV drama ‘Happy Valley’, a police procedural which stands head and…

Why have so many of us become so dissatisfied with our working lives? And why have so many of us become dissatisfied with our lives in general? Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was a German born philosopher best known for ‘The Human Condition’ (1958). In it, if I understand her correctly, she explains her view that the…

‘For all our days that tear the heartLeave us nowhereFor all the years we left untoldHurt, we couldn’t hold much longer’ Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler I don’t know if it’s because of my ever greying hair or simply the result of wishful thinking on the part of those who are posing the question, but…

Aristotle had it right when he asserted in his ‘Metaphysics’ that ‘Those who wish to succeed must ask the right preliminary question’. More than 2000 years later, doctors would do well to listen to his advice. Before adopting each and every new advance that claims to be good for our patients, we should ask what…

To the tune of ‘With God on our side’ by Bob Dylan. For twenty six years nowA GP I’ve beenAnd many’s the numberOf patients I’ve seenThey’ve come with their sicknessIn times of distressBut where will they go whenThere’s no NHS? Way back when I startedI always did knowTo those who required oneAn ambulance would goBut…

Two photos taken nearly 50 years apart, the second snapped shortly before Christmas at a family gathering to celebrate my parents diamond wedding anniversary, delayed by two and half years due to a certain attention grabbing virus that’s been prevalent of late. Things to note: Discerning observers will also notice that I am the second…

Recently I came across Hugh McLeave’s biography of Professor Ian Aird entitled ‘A Time to Heal’. In it Aird is described as having been ‘a brilliant surgeon, an inspired teacher and one of the great medical personalities of his generation’. He was also, if I have my family tree correct, my grandfather’s cousin. Born in…