Blog 99 Ingarsby Lane
September 2, 2025Ingarsby Lane is a common walk for dogs and their owners, a post lunch stroll for conscientious professionals walking off the calories and for young lovers wanting to get out of parental homes. It’s a place for sharing secrets, quarrels, making-up, breaking-up, coming to terms with loss, thinking about new arrivals, new places and empty […] Read more
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Blog 98 Is he really dead?
August 17, 2025Within a few days of qualifying as a doctor in the 60s, I found myself working overnight in the Casualty Department of a large city hospital. These were the days before emergency medicine emerged as a specialty and had permanent medical staff. The initial management of the most acutely ill patients was initiated by […] Read more
Blog 97 Embarrassment for a medical student
May 23, 2025I am certain that many folk reading this (well certainly the older ones amongst you) will remember the book written by Richard Gordon entitled Doctor in the House. Richard Gordon was a doctor; his name in real life being Gordon Ostler. He worked for a time as an anaesthetist at St Bartholomew’s Hospital where he […] Read more
Blog 96 My time as a volunteer nurse in the 1960s
April 15, 2025The year was 1969 and I was keen to train as a nurse. My two children, a boy and a girl, were now of an age and growing up, allowing me time and energy to plan a career. I was living in Perth at the time and an advert in the local paper just fell […] Read more
Blog 95 My ‘1980s experience as a student nurse’
March 11, 2025I started my nurse training at Park Hospital, Davyhulme in August 1985. It was not quite the days of Matron, aprons, starched hats and silver belt buckles – although the latter two were holding out in some quarters. It was still very hierarchical but informality was beginning to replace the rigid structure of old. It […] Read more
Blog 94 In desperate need of contraceptive advice
February 6, 2025Dr Julie Smith was coming to the end of a busy family planning clinic. During a long and tiring day, she had discussed the merits of contraceptive pills, caps, condoms, coils, implants and surgery over and over again. She feared the disenchantment she felt might become apparent to her patients, or clients, as her boss […] Read more
Blog 93 Obtaining Informed Consent
January 6, 2025On 19 July 2010 I had been blue-lighted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, because my General Practitioner was concerned I was losing consciousness. Following triage, I was scuttled away for a scan of my brain. (See image ) Whilst I was fading into a coma, a doctor told my wife Anne that it was necessary to […] Read more
Blog 92 Christmas Eve in Hospital 50 years ago
December 18, 2024Hospital life has changed enormously over the last 60 years, no more so than in the way that Christmas is celebrated. In those days a unique seasonal atmosphere developed during Christmas week and for those of us who were fortunate enough to be resident at that time, celebrating Christmas in hospital was a memorable experience. […] Read more
Blog 91 Manager outwits his medical colleagues
November 5, 2024Paul entered the committee room with some trepidation but was grateful when Mr Weston, his consultant boss, beckoned him to sit in an adjacent chair. This was his first appearance representing the junior doctors at the consultants’ meeting. After ‘apologies for absence’ had been noted and the minutes of the previous meeting agreed and signed, […] Read more
Blog 90 Remembering my horrific motorcycle accident
October 21, 2024On the evening of 7 June 2010, I was being pursued on my 1100cc Moto Guzzi Breva around Suffolk lanes by a RoSPA observer who would pass comment on my ride. However, events shifted because I blacked out whilst approaching a tight left-hand bend, hit a grass verge, and flew with serene motocross elegance into a […] Read more
