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.

Diary: Among the Neurons

Gavin Francis, 24 January 2013

I was 19 years old when I first held a human brain. It was heavier than I had anticipated; grey, firm and laboratory-cold. Its surface was slippery and smooth, like an algae-covered stone pulled from a riverbed. I had a terror of dropping it and seeing its tight contours burst open on the tiled floor.

It was the start of my second year at medical school. The first year had been a helter-skelter...

Don’t try this at home: Adrenaline

Gavin Francis, 29 August 2013

There’s a scene in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in which John Travolta’s character, a hitman called Vincent Vega, who has escorted his boss’s wife home after an evening out, returns from the bathroom to find her unconscious on the floor. Mia (Uma Thurman) has taken a bag of heroin from his jacket pocket and, mistaking the white powder for cocaine, snorted a line and...

Diary: Listening to the Heart

Gavin Francis, 6 March 2014

Before​ stethoscopes were invented, physicians would listen to their patients’ hearts by laying one ear directly onto the skin of the chest. We’re accustomed to laying our heads against the breasts of our lovers, our parents or our children, but once or twice when I’ve rushed out on an urgent house call, leaving my stethoscope behind, I’ve had to rediscover the...

How many speed bumps? Pain

Gavin Francis, 21 August 2014

I had just seen​ a man about his headaches and was about to call someone about her backache when the receptionist beckoned me over. ‘Mrs Lagnari is on the phone,’ she mouthed in a stage whisper. ‘Her husband is in terrible pain. Will you go and see him?’

During their training physicians are urged not to jump to conclusions. They’re supposed to wait until...

Cash for Diagnoses

Gavin Francis, 5 March 2015

For​ the last ten years GPs have been paid, by the taxpayer, to deliver ‘general medical services’ through a scheme based partly on incentives. ‘Quality of care’ is assessed using an ‘outcome framework’ known as QOF, whose parameters relate to expected best practice when treating various long-term diseases. Someone with diabetes, for example, should have...

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