sleep

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*Pictures and footnotes required for any of this to make sense (and it still might not be comprehensible)

Annual leave, time travel and hinges

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Is the NHS made of glass?

Rod acquires a handbag & realises he not iron  (*better with pictures)

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Pastiche

This is a difficult time. For me and others. Perhaps every time is difficult, the difference being a matter of perspective and geography. Birth and death, efflorescence and decay. We exist in perpetual imbalance ,which is our status quo. I have not written for a few weeks. That’s not true. I have written and deleted, written and not saved and written, become undone and given up. Sometimes…

Pastiche

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Whitby/ 199 steps / Dracula > forever young; oh to be...

Rod’s A to Z NHS Survival Guide – G for Geriatric

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Goodness only knows why I have written this.

An A-to-Z survival guide for the NHS & Healthcare in general, F is for Fibromyalgia (and other inflammatory and non-inflammatory conditions) and epistemic injustice

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An A-to-Z survival guide for the NHS & Healthcare in General, E is for Empathy

There is a character in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deanna Troi who defines herself as an empath. I don’t know her backstory and I can’t confirm whether she is truly empathetic although that is her job on the spaceship: to help people, to get inside their feelings and emotions, and work through challenges. Some might call her a therapist. What is empathy and is it the same as…

An A-to-Z survival guide for the NHS & Healthcare in General, E is for Empathy

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An A-to-Z survival guide for the NHS & Healthcare in general & D is for Dementia

It is hard to know where to begin in a post within an A-to-Z survival guide for the NHS & Healthcare in consideration of Dementia or dementia. Whether to capitalise is a thing. Which would you rather? Do I focus on the disease, the person, the symptoms, signs or features? I remember the husband of one of my patients recently talking about how tired he was, of doctors’ overuse of…

An A-to-Z survival guide for the NHS & Healthcare in general & D is for Dementia

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An A-to-Z survival guide for the NHS & Healthcare in general (Confabulation and lisping Ephraimites)

C – Confabulation… It is likely this was not the first ‘C’ that came to most readers minds. I considered Cholesterol, Cerebellum, Candida, Chest Pain and Care versus Cure, and perhaps one day I will expand this list. What is confabulation and why is it important? Confabulation is making things up. It is different from lying because of the intent. Let me explain. Confabulation is a feature of…

An A-to-Z survival guide for the NHS & Healthcare in general (Confabulation and lisping Ephraimites)

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An NHS A-to-Z survival guide 2026

A – A&E – this was changed a few years ago from A&E – ‘Accident and Emergency’ into ED ‘Emergency Department’ bringing the UK into line with US nomenclature, also moving away from the somewhat fatalistic concept that ‘accidents will happen’ – in a world of cause and effect, root cause analysis and Health and Safety regulation, there are no accidents, only avoidable incidents, and the role of the…

An NHS A-to-Z survival guide 2026

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Rambam - أَبُو عِمْرَان مُوسَى بْن مَيْمُون بْن عُبَيْد ٱللّٰه ٱلْقُرْطُبِيّ, The Great Eagle. רמב״ם

I have mentioned The Rambam – Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon (Maimonides in Greek – Μωησής Μαϊμονίδης) in the past (see here). A few years ago, a cartoon image of him featured on this blog. It was taken from a series of stickers I had purchased on a trip to Manchester to visit the place my parents and brothers lived before I was born. In Prestwich, near the King David School there was an antiquarian…

Rambam - أَبُو عِمْرَان مُوسَى بْن مَيْمُون بْن عُبَيْد ٱللّٰه ٱلْقُرْطُبِيّ, The Great Eagle. רמב״ם

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Top NHS Saving Tips from Rod, numbers 61 to 100 

I don’t remember the last time I wrote daily blogs.  For my regular readers, I tend to write once and very occasionally twice a week.  In the past when life was either more settled or chaotic (extremes move me), I would produce more.  This will be my 6th in a row, and it appears to have done something to the internet in that hundreds of people have been reading.  If you loop-back a month or…

Top NHS Saving Tips from Rod, numbers 61 to 100 

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Rod’s Top Tips (numbers 51–60) For Saving the NHS and Promoting Health, Wellbeing, and Kindness

I have written 50 top tips that either directly or indirectly can save the NHS. Working in healthcare is straightforward. Do what is right for the patients, do what is right for the staff supporting those patients and you can’t go wrong. OK. You can. You can believe you are doing the right thing which might be the wrong thing, or you might do the right thing which is the right thing which the…

Rod’s Top Tips (numbers 51–60) For Saving the NHS and Promoting Health, Wellbeing, and Kindness

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Wednesday count from 40 to 50. Halfway to a century. Top tips to save your life and the NHS.

Yesterday I took you from 21 to 39 top NHS saving tips. Are there more? Let’s, see? 40) Do not treat conditions that are not bacterial infections with antibiotics. This is easier said than done. I mean, how do you know a patient has viral pneumonia and not a bacterial one? Blood tests and x-rays might help, but you can never be certain – OK, you can tell if you do something special like…

Wednesday count from 40 to 50. Halfway to a century. Top tips to save your life and the NHS.

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21 to 39 ways to save the NHS

Yesterday we went from 10.5 to 20 ways to save the NHS. I thought I would challenge myself and see how many more suggestions I can propose. Some of these might become silly; I will try to stay on track. 21) Employ doctors, nurses, therapists, and others on the same terms and conditions.You might not realise that every profession working in healthcare has different contractual arrangements,…

21 to 39 ways to save the NHS

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10.5 to 20 ways to save the NHS

Yesterday I provided my top 10.5 strategies to save the NHS. Was that enough? Are you ready for more? To summarise, here are the 10.5: Do fewer unnecessary tests Support older people proactively Get more experts in the care of older people Charge for GP appointments and A&E visits Stop routine follow-ups 5b Give patients access to doctors’ email addresses! Use AI to improve doctor…

10.5 to 20 ways to save the NHS

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10.5 strategies to save the NHS

I was talking with a colleague last week and referenced the scene from Flash Gordon where Dale Arden says, ‘Flash, I love you, but we only have 14 to save the Earth!’ That film has always been dear to me not least because I was a little boy when I first saw it at the cinema, but following my encounter with Brian Blessed (photo) who repeatedly shouted, ‘Gordon’s Alive’ (in between bear-hugs) as…

10.5 strategies to save the NHS

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A theory of survival of the NHS with a self-management allusion (& a homage to Rod Hull & Emu)

Two weeks ago, I wrote my theory to explain some of the dysfunctions of the NHS with suggestions as to how these might be corrected. It boils-down to addressing the reality that the care many older people receive is inadequate to meet their needs which places pressure on an already stressed system. We spend billions of pounds contributing towards a deterioration rather than an improvement in…

A theory of survival of the NHS with a self-management allusion (& a homage to Rod Hull & Emu)