We are at the start of a very serious pandemic that will result in a significant loss of life particularly for the elderly. COVID-19 is a new virus which means that we have no immunity to it at all. The virus is also highly infectious and we are expecting in the region of 70% of […]

I am so pleased that The Care Quality Commission has inspected and rated our service as “Outstanding”! This is the highest category that an organisation can achieve and is the result of lots of hard work behind the scenes with our patient treatement coordinator, Vicki Greener and our newly appointed admin support, Liz Parsons, establishing […]

Many years ago, whilst working in a large teaching hospital, I enquired about the cost of office renovation work that was being done in the department that I was working in. The job involved splitting an office into two by putting in a partition wall and adding a door. I  was having some renovations done […]

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a treatment for certain types of mental illness including severe depression, schizophrenia, catatonia or mania. With this treatment a current of electricity is passed through the brain (under anaesthesia) causing a fit or seizure. Although this treatment has been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for […]

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 […]

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 […]