Gavin Francis

Gavin Francis  is a GP; his book on Thomas Browne, The Opium of Time came out in May, and his book in defence of the principles of the NHS, Free For All, was released in August.

Who scored last? Collision Sport

Gavin Francis, 5 October 2023

The human brain​ is softer than tofu, squishier than a jellyfish, slightly more robust than toothpaste. Brain surgeons tend not to use scalpels because the substance they work on is too delicate; instead they use ultrasound and suction probes, using breaths of air to suck away diseased bits of matter. A thin layer of cerebrospinal fluid – a hundred millilitres or so – cushions the...

Brain Spot Men

Gavin Francis, 4 May 2023

Acouple​ of years ago a patient I’ll call Joan came to my GP clinic to tell me that her right leg had stopped working. ‘Sometimes it’ll hold me upright,’ she said, ‘and sometimes it won’t.’ I took a look at her legs. Her thigh muscles on the right seemed to me a bit weaker than on the left, and her reflexes were unusually brisk; when I tapped her...

Letter

Sacrosanct

30 March 2023

Alice Spawls writes about the diminution and degradation of NHS services (LRB, 30 March). As a GP I meet patients almost daily who have been obliged to seek private treatment. They are often rueful about the cost, and say that they’d rather pay a little more in tax than spend tens of thousands of pounds of savings.David Runciman, in the same issue, notes that mixed-payment, insurance-based health...
Letter

Sacrosanct

30 March 2023

Alice Spawls writes about the diminution and degradation of NHS services (LRB, 30 March). As a GP I meet patients almost daily who have been obliged to seek private treatment. They are often rueful about the cost, and say that they’d rather pay a little more in tax than spend tens of thousands of pounds of savings.David Runciman, in the same issue, notes that mixed-payment, insurance-based health...

Functionaldisorders are conditions in which the body’s normal processes are disrupted, but for which no organic cause can be determined. They do, though, have characteristics evident to a trained eye, since the sufferers experience sensations or disabilities that don’t make anatomical sense. This doesn’t mean that the symptoms are in any way less real or debilitating....

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