Judith Harvey – Random Thoughts Ltd

How Do We Let Down the Drawbridge?

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in October 2020 A year ago, who could define social distancing? Now, we’re all aware, though even people in authority seem unsure of exactly what the distance is and when it matters. Last month we took a train to Dorset, our first venture outside London since March. All my […]

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. Masks are uncomfortable, your glasses steam up, they muffle sounds and restrict facial expressions. It’s difficult to know if you are wearing them correctly. You can’t […]

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? Last Friday, on my way to the pharmacy, a young woman, mask-less, was walking straight towards me, her eyes glued to her phone. Fortunately, one of us was alert.For me, she […]

A Lockdown Diary

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in April 2020 In the future, when we look back on this strange period, the experience of all of us needs to be acknowledged, and I’m going back to time BC (Before Covid-19) to track how swiftly we moved from complacent normality to a fearful wartime footing. 1st April […]

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. In his Nobel prize acceptance speech Alexander Fleming sounded a note of warning. He had […]

Doctors under Siege

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in December, 2019 Bashar al Assad, President of Syria, Damascus, April 2011 In 2011, Hamza was a young Syrian doctor learning German in the hope of going abroad for specialist training. Then the civil war broke out and he opted to stay in Aleppo, operating in makeshift hospitals on […]

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

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in October, 2019 Social prescribing transforms 21st century lives A partner in a North London practice was feeling burned out. The crushing target-chasing workload was no longer offset by the reward of helping patients. The BNF had no remedy for the distresses of modern life which patients were bringing […]

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. The Royal Opera House orchestra was rehearsing Die Walküre. For more than three hours violist Chris Goldscheider sat in front of twenty brass players belting out Wagner at 90dB. […]

Whacking Moles

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in February 2018 Whacking moles may make you feel you are doing something, but it doesn’t solve the problem. Last year the malware WannaCry attacked IT systems worldwide. Microsoft wasn’t making any more money from their hugely successful Windows XP so to encourage sales of a new operating system […]

Singing in the Brain

First published in the NASGP Newsletter in April 2019 When words fail, music may find a way into a failing brain London’s Wigmore Hall is a temple of high culture. The audience is packed with musicians. Sometimes I feel I’m the only person who couldn’t be up there performing the work. But recently I joined […]

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. In post-war Italy TB was still rife and notices in buses commanded “No Spitting”. In Britain in 1946 the message “Coughs and sneezes […]

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. Twenty-five years ago Medellín in Colombia was the murder capital of the world. The city was […]