#ILookLikeASurgeon first appeared on my timeline a week or so ago. I was interested in it because I’m a surgeon in training. Background: it’s a campaign against gender stereotypes. Piggy-backing on a campaign called #ILookLikeAnEngineer, it aims to show that surgeons are no longer just good-looking white dudes (think: Chris Barnard in the sixties) flanked […]
surgery
Posted inHealth
A big, big idea to reform private healthcare
The dynamics of private healthcare in South Africa are like a multigang bar-room brawl, with protagonists slugging it out, bloodying noses on all sides, retreating for a moment, and then rushing back into the fray. It’s easy to stand on the fringes, braying for changes and reform. It’s a lot harder coming up with suggestions […]
Posted inHealth
When surgeons become wise
I noticed something different about my driving habits lately. At a traffic light I used to accept the green as an open invitation to drive through unconcerned, confident that other drivers would see the red and do what they are supposed to do, ie stop. I don’t do that anymore. I always look to see […]
Posted inGeneral, Health
The healing power of ice cream
(This guy is a hero in my opinion. We could all learn from him.) The phone conversation, as my dad, in the bed next door, recalls it, went something like this. “Hello?” “Hi, is this Jim? Where are you?” “No, it’s not Jim. I’m John, and I’m in hospital.” “Oh sorry, John, I […]
Posted inHealth
There’s no such thing as an ‘unnecessary’ operation…
Yup. You heard me. When funders and heath economists talk about unnecessary health expenditure it irks me. You, the patient, may not need an operation but there’s a whole bunch of people who do … the surgeon, the anaesthetist, the hospital, the surgical supplier, the drug companies. Your body is a valuable commodity, and in […]