Epidurals save lives and we should be telling our patients well before they get to the labour ward.

We need to change the concept of “natural labour” - no one has failed because they had an epidural, in fact the decision to have one will help them and their babies come through what is naturally a highly dangerous process unscathed, especially if they’re at risk of complications.

The atmosphere on the strike days is palpably different to a normal day. I work in a hospital that deals mainly with urgent and emergency work, so the workload isn’t that different from normal, but the buzz of teaching and training that is so integrated into our work just isn’t there.

Our patients deserve to have access to doctors on the frontline. Yes, we are more expensive than a telephone operator, but we are efficient decision makers trained to see a bigger picture, to look after the whole patient and use our skills to anticipate other issues that might come up. We are good value.

It’s 2am and I have just been called to the labour ward. As a consultant anaesthetist with 25 years' experience I am covering the night shift normally worked by our junior doctors, who are on strike for the longest period in history.

“we have been deleted from history where we were present, but in most cases we hid our homosexuality well and never featured at all”

I’ve been meaning to write this account for a while, but I wanted my patient to have her operation successfully before writing it. I want to thank her and her daughter profusely for not only allowing, but encouraging me to write this.

A year on - the sense of smell hasn’t quite returned, and my blood boils at the decisions to pause vaccinations.

Over the last few months, our lives have been turned upside down. Are we ok? Do we still have emotions?

In March 2020 before we had COVID-19 tests or knew much, I realised my muscle ache wasn’t just a bad yoga class as I lost my sense of smell.

AGP or not AGP? That is the question….

Work experience is vital before we commit our lives to medicine, we need to know what we’re letting ourselves in for.

Our patients have a golden opportunity to improve their fitness during their cancer treatment.

The basis of Miller’s triangle… wifi!

It’s not all about saving lives, providing a good, dignified death is as important. We need to talk to our closest friends and relatives.

We overuse the term “allergy” - most are nothing of the sort.

Instant messaging is here to stay, and essential in our day to day and emergency communications.

Getting our patients fitter improves our cancer outcomes.

Get our patients fit for surgery.

The WHO write a crazy guideline, I blog about it, guideline author attacks me in the comments, and two years later the evidence for it is torn to shreds in the journals. Turns out I was right.