Over the years I have come across many stories of patients being let down by the poor mental health services in the UK. It is good to know that mental heath is now a top priority for the NHS because if we ignore it, the problems will be much worse. There are however still cases […]

PANDAS stands for “Paediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus” whilst PANS stands for “Paediatric Neuropsychiatric Syndrome”. Many consider PANDAS to be a sub-set of PANS but is this correct or are we seeing two different pathologies? Indeed, we have to ask ourselves if instead of two distinct disease entities we are actually dealing with […]

It is a privilege to be a children’s doctor. Over the years I have been able to treat children with cancer, cystic fibrosis and other conditions which can have a huge impact on their health. Being in hospital for a long time can have a massive effect on a child’s mental health, so I go […]

As part of my training as a children’s doctor I had to undertake my professional (also known as “Royal college”) exams. This was very early on in my career. These exams are held at different locations around the UK and I decided that I would go to Titterington,a city in the north of England, to […]

Our paediatric services are struggling on several fronts; not enough trainees, consultants leaving early and significant rota gaps which can result in a poorer service. At the same time we have more and more patients going to A+E. But why? What is changing and why are we seeing these increased pressures? Last year there were […]

  The room was dark and there was the hum of machines working in the background. I was laid on my bed trying to get some rest whilst on call at one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe. It was about 3am and I was battling between trying to get some sleep and worrying […]