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
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
