PERSPECTIVES

A blog by Judith Harvey

About the author . . .

Judith Harvey has written regular articles for the Sessional GP, the newsletter of the National Association of Sessional GPs (NASGP) for over twelve years. Her reflections range widely on practical, ethical and cultural aspects of health and medicine.

Judith has now published her previous articles from the NASGP website as a new book Perspectives: A GP reflects on medical practice and, well, just about everything . . .

Judith was a research scientist, ran the VSO programme in Papua New Guinea and taught in a Liverpool comprehensive school before going to medical school. She has been a partner, a salaried GP and a locum, an LMC chair and a long-time supporter NASGP. For eight years her charity, Cuba Medical Link, enabled medical students to go to Cuba for their electives.

SEE ALSO: Judith Harvey on NASGP

Repurposing: the Reward and Risk of Thinking Again

First published in the NASGP Newsletter on 24 April 2024

The speed of AI exploration will be a game-changer. No hunches needed.

An Urgent Need

First published in the NASGP Newsletter on 31 March 2024

Local authorities have no duty to provide public conveniences.

Bet you can’t eat just one

First published in the NASGP Newsletter on 13th January 2024

Snacks don’t give the brain time to suppress ghrelin production, so it goes on and on stimulating eating.

Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog?

First published in the NASGP Newsletter on 4th September 2023

Can a ‘primitive’ invertebrate possibly do better than us?

It Ain’t Over ‘til It’s Over

First published in the NASGP Newsletter 26th June 2023

Photo by Carolyn Brown

‘There’s your science and my science’ is their mantra. No there isn’t.

The Nitty Gritty

First published in the NASGP Newsletter on 22nd May 2023

I was phoned at 2am by a woman demanding I come out to an address way out of our area to prescribe treatment for nits.

The Museum of Broken Relationships

First published in the NASGP Newsletter on 6th March 2023

“You have to learn to live in another country in which you’re an unwilling refugee.”

Even Can-Kickers Need a Road Map

First published in the NASGP Newsletter on 25th January 2023

Around 1000 newly qualified IMG GPs receive their licence to practise and a deportation order in the same post.

Living with the Shaking Palsy

First published in the NASGP Newsletter on 7th November 2022

Whatever compound Joy Milne is detecting could be a game-changer.

Sleep Knits Up the Ravelled Sleeve of Care . . .

First published in the NASGP Newsletter 10th October 202

The influence of circadian rhythms on illnesses and treatments is barely mentioned in medical curriculums.

A Fortunate Woman

First published in the NASGP Newsletter on 6th June 2022

It turned out that ‘A Fortunate Man’ was not entirely believable.

From Kildare to Kay

First published in the NASGP Newsletter 18th April 2022

Non-medical friends stopped watching because they felt it couldn’t be realistic.

Who’s Speaking?

First published in the NASGP Newsletter on 28th February 2022

Opera meets biomedical research.

Sniffing Danger

First published in the NASGP Newsletter 1st November 2021

Biodetection dogs can identify Parkinson’s, malaria, bacterial infections and Covid-19.

Stakhanovism: It Hasn’t Gone Away

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in August 2021

Good enough’ has to be good enough.

Sans Teeth, sans Eyes, sans Taste, sans Everything

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in June 2021

The young may think and learn more quickly, but old dogs can learn new tricks.

The Health of the Nation: Who’s Keeping Score?

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in April 2021

European Stone Stacking Championship © Sally Anderson Photography

What if we had a single measurement for the nation’s health?

76 Days

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in February 2021

What was it like when covid struck Wuhan?

Searching for the Sweet Spot

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in December 2020

Can we make the healthy choice the cheap choice?

How Do We Let Down the Drawbridge?

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in October 2020

Social exclusion is alien to the NHS, one of the few institutions which is open to all

Learning to Live with Masks

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in August 2020

Masks are going to be with us for a long time to come. We’d all better get used to them.

Beware the Old Normal

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in June 2020

What good has come from this unprecedented social experiment? And how do we preserve it?

A Lockdown Diary

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in April 2020

When we look back on this strange period, the experience of all of us needs to be acknowledged, I’m going back to time BC (Before Covid-19) to track how swiftly we moved from complacent normality to a fearful wartime footing.

Antimicrobial Resistance: Can We Outrun Evolution?

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in February 2020

This was written at the end of January 2020. Since then Covid-19 has trumped almost every other medical challenge, but in the future we will need effective antibiotics all the more.

Doctors under Siege

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in December 2019
Bashar al Assad, President of Syria, Damascus, April 2011

I’ve Seen the Future of General Practice and . . .

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in October, 2019
Social prescribing transforms 21st century lives.

Quiet, Please!

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in August 2019
Noisy environments aren’t a new phenomenon, but we are only now recognising how noise endangers our health.

Now Wash Your Hands

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in June 2019
A century after Semmelweis published his paper on reducing the spread of infection in maternity wards, his advice reached the Department of Health.

Singing in the Brain

First published in NASGP Newsletter in April 2019
When words fail, music may find a way into a failing brain

Eating People is Wrong

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in February 2019
There is a link between Tromsø, the Arctic capital of Norway, and the Fore district of Papua New Guinea, and it is cannibalism.

Getting under Your Skin

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in December 2018
Body Worlds is an exhibition of plastinated bodies. What issues does plastination raise?

Fringe Medicine

First published in the NASGP newsletter in October 2018
Medics have a long-standing relationship with the annual August circus that is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

A Viper’s Nest of Treasures

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in August 2018
Since the antihypertensive captopril went on the market in 1981 it has probably saved many more lives than have been lost to the pit vipers from which it was obtained.

Understanding Denial: a Visit to the Faroe Islands

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in June 2018
What can public health in UK learn from the Faroes about changing cultural traditions?

Sin City: the Redemption

First published in the NASGP newsletter in April 2018
The UK is losing the ‘war on drugs’. We might learn from Colombia as it recovers from decades of violence brought about by its illegal manufacture and export of cocaine.

Whacking Moles

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in February 2018
What do dead plants in doctors’ consulting rooms say about them? Maintenance is boring but we ignore it at our peril.