GP
Rishi’s smoking ban inspired me to light a cigarette
What has Rishi Sunak’s government achieved in its first year? The highlights include a renegotiated Brexit policy and setting more…
How do I know I’m an adult? I’m given unsolicited feedback
Adulthood was once determined by age, but now we’ve extended childhood far beyond the teenage years. If the government gets its…
Why won’t my British friends see a GP?
Having lived in the United Kingdom for almost my whole adult life, I like to think I’m well assimilated. I…
My medical embarrassments are my business and no one else’s
While we were looking forward to Freedom Day, the National Health Service was busy planning something extra special to coincide…
Why I finally succumbed to my musclebound osteopath
‘You’ll come back when you’re in enough pain,’ said the osteopath as I walked out of his door. That was…
Why do hygienists self-sabotage?
‘You’re meant to be having your dental appointment now!’ barked the receptionist, bringing my lie-in to an abrupt end. Very…
My €25 Covid jab surprise
Around the time that poor M. Macron was casting televised aspersions on the AstraZeneca jab, I was offered one by…
Shrieks, shots and broken china: a visit to my rural French GP
On a hard chair next to the waiting-room door, I sat for an hour defusing thoughts of my own demise,…
Not going to the osteopath cured me
Not going to the osteopath worked a treat. Walking out of that surgery after hearing the crunching coming from inside…
My local hospital is ‘listening to its staff’ – but not, apparently, the patients
Surely it can be no coincidence that the road by which one enters St George’s Hospital, Tooting, is called Effort…
The joy of anti-psychotic drugs
The doctor eyed me suspiciously as I walked into her consulting room. ‘Ye-es?’ she said, nervously, eyeing me up and…
The over-75s are being asked if they would like to sign their own death warrants
It’s more than four months now since my 75th birthday, but I’m still waiting for a ‘cold call’ from the…
My life in ailments
My request to see my medical notes was granted in the end. I honestly don’t know why I wanted to…
My request to see my medical notes has sparked all-out panic at my GP surgery
My request to see my medical notes has sparked all-out panic at the GP surgery. ‘What do you mean?’ said…
These days, when men wolf-whistle at me, I thank them
Incredible as it seems to me now, there was a time when a wolf whistle was annoying. A man would…
