Health & Society

Read news stories, features and analysis below about the latest developments in healthcare from the award winning team of journalists at The Doctor magazine

Binning the beige buffet

Health service catering has tended to offer little in the way of either 'health' or 'service', but it's not all pie, chips and pop, as Ben Ireland discovered at a hospital determined to do better

Health & Society Doctors' Wellbeing By Ben Ireland

Binning the beige buffet

Health service catering has tended to offer little in the way of either 'health' or 'service', but it's not all pie, chips and pop, as Ben Ireland discovered at a hospital determined to do better

By Ben Ireland 31.07.25

PAs and AAs should be called ‘assistants’ and not see undifferentiated patients

Recommendations in Leng Review, which BMA calls ‘inadequate response’ to ‘patient safety scandal’

Ben Ireland 16.07.25

One giant leap: the British doctor set to become the first astronaut with a disability

Having become a surgeon and Paralympic medallist following a serious accident, it's tempting to say the sky's the limit for John McFall ... but now he has been cleared to go into space. He tells Seren Boyd about the rigorous training, how his prosthetic leg got a space-age redesign and why we should all do something we love

By Seren Boyd 14.07.25

Bot-ched advice – 'disturbing' results in AI study

Chatbots do quite well in diagnosing conditions ... but only in other chatbots, new research has found. Peter Blackburn reports

By Peter Blackburn 10.07.25

7th July – the doctors who ran towards danger

One of the four bombs which exploded in London on 7 July 2005 was on a bus outside BMA House in Tavistock Square. Peter Blackburn hears from two of the doctors who treated the wounded, turning the courtyard of BMA House into a field hospital

By Peter Blackburn 07.07.25

ARM debates prioritisation on specialty training programmes

Representatives also call for expansion in places and criticise ‘failure’ of government workforce planning

By Ben Ireland 26.06.25

BMA members vote to help fix ‘failed’ NHS workforce plan

Union to lobby for more senior doctor roles and easing of specialty training bottlenecks

By Ben Ireland 25.06.25

BMA condemns punitive action taken against climate activist doctors

Association calls for protections for members engaging in non-violent advocacy

By Ben Ireland 24.06.25