No place to recover – the rocketing demand on the NHS from homeless patients and the staff trying to break the cycle

Homeless people are attending hospital in ever greater numbers but are discharged back to the streets where they can enter a spiral of decline, readmission and premature death. Peter Blackburn meets those trying to restore hope

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The Doctor magazine

The Doctor – issue 16, December, 2019

13 December 2019

Female genital mutilation, healthcare for the homeless, tackling sexism in the NHS and historical medical artefacts – just some of the issues covered in the December issue of The Doctor
A Wellcome diversion

12 December 2019

New galleries at the Science Museum show when medicine was beautiful, useful and occasionally, both. Neil Hallows takes a tour
Close-up care – connecting with the community

12 December 2019

Patients who consult often and widely, and with ‘medically unexplained’ symptoms, can pose a particular challenge. Keith Cooper reports from a service which tries to understand their motivations and help them

Root-and-branch pensions tax reform the only solution

The BMA remains clear that the only long-term solution to the pension taxation crisis is to fix this problem at source by undertaking fundamental pension taxation reform.
The ‘s’ word

The situation was, frankly, a little hairy. The infant was grey and shut down, breathing rapidly but scarcely whimpering a protest at the needle.
Please do not feed the lawyers

Apparently there are four main types of error in medicine: failure to consider a possible diagnosis, failure to examine or investigate appropriately, failure to interpret signs correctly or failure to record ones’ actions.

'People like us don't become doctors'

Overcoming the toughest social barriers to enter medicine, doctors and medical students tell us how they made it against the odds.
Are you paying to go to work?

We asked GPs and hospital doctors about pension tax charges and how they’re affecting work commitments. Here are the results.
Neil Armstrong's doctor

When Neil Armstrong's crew returned to earth, it was flight surgeon Bill Carpentier who looked after them. Fifty years on, he tells us about his weeks quarantined with the moonwalkers.
The hard road back

Alastair Watt was a respected and hard-working consultant. His death raises serious questions about how the NHS looks after its doctors when they return to work after illness.
A place of refuge?

Squalid and overcrowded – we visit one of the largest refugee camps in Greece.
Streets of Shame

Homelessness and the NHS - a tome of tragedies
Born of injustice

Separated at Birth junior doctor and mother of two is back in family court, under very different circumstances.
Separated at birth

The impact of poor access to mental healthcare during pregnancy.
An end to market madness?

Quietly, the NHS is being reorganised by health leaders but the pace of change is being forced by frontline services buckling under pressure of increased demand and diminishing resources.
When a doctor calls for help

Dr Meng Aw-Yong explores the impact of a GMC investigation and where doctors can turn for support.
Care across boundaries

How volunteering in the UK and abroad benefits doctors and the countries that host them.
Enjoy your elective

Follow these medical students and their elective journeys in Malta, Australia, New Zealand, the Himalayan region of India, and at home in the UK.
BMA digital features

Read our digital features and become immersed in the real-life stories of doctors and medical students.