13th July 2026 Newsletter Monday Hello Reader, I defy anyone to read these statistics in the BMJ and not feel a wave of disbelief. Over a million children in England were referred for mental health support last year. That’s almost double the number five years ago. It’s such an enormous figure that my first thought wasn’t, “We need bigger mental health services.” It was, what on earth has happened? As both a GP and a parent, this one hits hard. The BMJ described it as a mental health crisis....
12 days ago • 3 min read
6th July 2026 Newsletter Monday You will get going Hello Reader, One of the health stories doing the rounds this week is the NHS exploring a scheme that could reward people for walking regularly with shopping discounts or vouchers. Predictably, social media did what social media does. Within minutes there were claims that this was really about spying on people, mining for data, linking your walking data to your GP records, or even using it to decide whether you deserve benefits. As someone...
19 days ago • 3 min read
29th June 2026 Newsletter Monday The app will see you now Hello Reader, I’ve been thinking about an announcement that landed in my inbox this week. It will undoubtedly be the source of a lot of headlines for slow news days. The government has announced £85 million to fund twelve projects exploring new ways to tackle obesity, with artificial intelligence playing a central role in several of them. One of the projects is here on my own patch in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, looking at...
26 days ago • 4 min read
22nd June 2026 Newsletter Monday Tea anyone? Hello Reader, There’s a BBC news article this week suggesting that some supplements may be doing more harm than good. That headline won’t surprise my regular readers. I’m hardly known for my enthusiasm when it comes to expensive powders, miracle capsules or anything that claims to optimise your mitochondria while simultaneously detoxifying your liver and balancing your hormones. But it did get me thinking. The problem isn’t that all supplements are...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
15th June 2026 Newsletter Monday Lower isn't always better Hello Reader, How often have you been carried along by momentum? We usually think of momentum as a good thing. This week, I started wondering whether that’s always true. I was visiting some patients in the community hospital to oversee their move there from the main hospital. While I was in the office, an emergency buzzer sounded and without giving it a second thought, I ran, like everyone else, to the emergency. Afterwards I kept...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
8th June 2026 Newsletter Monday What music can you hear? Hello Reader, On my shift this weekend, I found myself explaining something to a trainee GP that I’ve seen play out countless times before. It’s an example of the 'after effects' of communication in healthcare that I’ve seen before, many times in fact. We saw a man at home who has been losing weight steadily since his surgery at the end of last year. The operation on his bowel was planned and resulted in a section being removed and a...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
1st June 2026 Newsletter Monday Is this normal doc? Hello Reader, A BBC article today reports that heart screening checks had identified almost 200 young women with previously undiagnosed heart conditions, including some at high risk of sudden cardiac death. It caught my eye too, because I was talking to this charity a couple of weeks ago. On the face of it, it sounds like a straightforward success story. A simple test. A serious condition. A life potentially saved. And of course, if you were...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
25th May 2026 Newsletter Monday Leave me alone Hello Reader, A local newspaper story caught my eye this morning. A young man who had previously survived cancer reportedly died after taking part in a detox ritual involving a substance derived from an Amazonian tree frog. The details are tragic and still unclear, so I’m not going to sensationalise them further. His mum has spoken to the journalist hoping to raise awareness about this, though exact cause of death is still unconfirmed. But the...
2 months ago • 2 min read
18th May 2026 Newsletter Monday I am more than just my oil Hello Reader, A few people messaged me this week asking for my thoughts on the “new fish oil research.” I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Which probably tells you something about modern health news. If you take your eyes off it for 72 hours, apparently omega fish oil capsules go from “essential for longevity” to “possibly causing atrial fibrillation.” Normal service resumed. The paper people were referring to...
2 months ago • 3 min read