Here is a list of blogs on this site. You can also find them using the search function. I hope they are helpful.   Covid vaccination in 2025 Managing and preventing diabetes Diabetes and anaesthesia Breast feeding and anaesthetic drugs Preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) Anticoagulants and surgery Preassessment Anaemia and low iron Allergies under… Read more »

I try to revise these blogs every so often and thought I would remove those related to Covid. The legacy of Covid is many deaths and long term damage to healthcare systems but we are not seeing patients admitted to hospital due to Covid. I did consider just removing the blogs but several people have… Read more »

Medical education has been slow to catch up with the menopause. I was taught nothing about the menopause at medical school and generations of women have suffered the insidious onset of a myriad of symptoms which has severely affected their quality of life for up to a decade. Fortunately this is changing. Phoenix Hospital Group… Read more »

We are realising that preventative medicine is as important as treatment. I have recently posted blogs on over-the-counter drugs that we might give to people without disease as well as a blog on healthy living. To complete my thoughts on preventative medicine, I wanted to post on health screening I am a great believer in… Read more »

  Hypertension simply means high blood pressure. It is very common with over a billion cases worldwide. Up to 25% of people have hypertension and many are unaware of it because it produces no symptoms and causes no problems for many years. It is commoner in some ethnic groups, in men, in those with western… Read more »

  Lots of people take vitamins, minerals and other remedies they buy from health shops – so called ‘over the counter’. It is a massive industry – estimated to be worth £1.86b in the UK alone. Is this just clever marketing? The fact remains that a normal varied diet in the UK will provide all… Read more »

  Anaemia is an abnormally low level of haemoglobin in the blood. Haemoglobin carries oxygen but the red cells also maintain the fluid balance around the body. Anaemia is relatively common and even in the developed world exists in up to 5% of the population. It is now agreed that the ideal haemoglobin for major… Read more »

  This blog will provide general advice about type two diabetes. There is another blog on my website describing how we manage diabetic patients in the perioperative period.   There are two types of diabetes: type I occurs when the insulin producing cells in the pancreas are destroyed. The reason is unknown although viral infections… Read more »

  This is one of two blogs on diabetes and will explain how we prepare patients who are diabetic for operations and manage them during their hospital stay. There is a second blog which explains how we can prevent and manage diabetes   Diabetic patients have a higher surgical morbidity and mortality. They suffer from… Read more »

  If you need either general anaesthesia or sedation while you are breastfeeding I will always give you specific advice at the time but I thought a blog outlining some general principles might be helpful to patients before they come into hospital.   There are two separate issues: first caring for the mother and secondly… Read more »