Dr Jo Maher NHS GP

@drrachelclarke.com Covid enquiry article reminded me Story of a Heart on my must-read list @lauralaker.bsky.social @davidcox65.bsky.social 1st chapter describing what it feels like attending a horrific car collision and impact of culture accepting dangerous roads brutal & brilliant writing.

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.

Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.

They are not the same.

I’ll never forget the horror of the Covid wards | The Observer

Powerful piece by @drrachelclarke.com on the COVID inquiry. Those who say it’s easy to be wise in hindsight are being utterly disingenuous. Many of us spoke out at the time, and it’s in the public record.
@independentsage.bsky.social

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Please do read this brilliant article by @drrachelclarke.com we can’t forget what took place & we must learn.

Photo 27th March 2020 just a paper mask for GP home visits supplied, a little dark humour with the kids when their mum set off for work in a snorkel mask.

I’ll never forget the horror of the Covid wards | The Observer

"My NHS colleagues & I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Boris no longer mentions them at all."

My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away.

Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social.

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Lady Howells of St Davids obituary Community worker and champion of racial equality who became a spokeswoman for the family of Stephen Lawrence

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Rosalind Howells - Lady Howells of St Davids, politician and community has died aged 94 years of age.

Vote for competent leaders, not entertainers – that’s what I wish the Covid report could say | Devi Sridhar To prevent a future pandemic we’d need agile leadership, smart decision-making, humility and trustworthiness. How does one build those into a political system, asks Prof Devi Sridhar, chair of global ...

“The heroes of the Covid story are science and the NHS (and immigration, as even Johnson attested to, given the international healthcare team who treated him for severe Covid in hospital),” writes @profdevisridhar.bsky.social. Wise words as always www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Dangerous shortage of medics threatens safe patient care in England, top GP says Exclusive: Royal College of GPs chair says surgeries desperate to hire more doctors but lack funding to do so GPs can no longer guarantee safe care for millions of patients because of a dangerous shortage of medics, Britain’s top family doctor has said. Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said surgeries were desperate to hire more doctors to meet soaring demand for care but could not afford to do so because of a lack of core funding. Continue reading...

Dangerous shortage of medics threatens safe patient care in England, top GP says

I’d love to visit @kendalmountainfest.bsky.social sadly not this year, loads of great films & people to discover from afar - next time!

Stunning! Best of luck in the comp
David

Ski gloves! Blooming cold out in Sheff today 🚲

‘Chaotic and indecisive’: key findings of report on UK’s Covid response under Tories Second report focuses on responses by politicians including then-PM Boris Johnson and the decisions they made during pandemic

For an instant guide to the report, this very full précis of its findings by colleague Jessica Murray is a good place to start.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

The red painted hearts of The National Covid Memorial Wall on a winter day. The sky is grey and the trees are bare.

Today, as the #CovidInquiry releases its module 2 report, we are thinking especially of everyone who will have to relive the trauma of that time, who will have to hear of the government failings that led to their loved ones' deaths. 

We will never forget our beloved dead. ❤️

Thank you @bjgp.bsky.social for publishing my review of the excellent & readable Breathe by @sadiqkhanlondon.bsky.social featuring stories including @ellarobertafdn.bsky.social important work campaigning for clean air for all. A good news story .

Another book for the Christmas list! 📚

National rollout of social prescribing link workers improved outcomes for specifically targeted individuals and overall patient experience with #GeneralPractice

Future research must consider financial sustainability and any health inequalities doi.org/10.3399/BJGP... #PrimaryCare

In Parliament today I said the asylum announcement scrapes the bottom of the barrel and is a desperate attempt to copy Reform.

We should be taking the fight to Reform - not trying to outdo them.

BREAKING: European Sleeper will start a Paris-Berlin sleeper train from 26 March 2026, after Nightjet pulls out in December.
It'll run via Brussels (with Eurostar connection from London) 3 times a week. This + existing train = Brussels-Berlin 6 times a week. www.europeansleeper.eu/paris

China’s Maglev train prototype clocked 620 mph (1000 km/h) — that’s faster than most commercial airplanes.
This isn’t sci-fi; it’s the next phase of ultra-high-speed travel.
With magnetic levitation tech and zero physical contact with the tracks in a test vacuum tube, the future of transportation...

Flooded and forgotten: the UK’s waters are rising and we’re being kept in the dark | John Harris Rescue operations in Wales, submerged railway lines in Cornwall – these events are ever more common. So why have we utterly failed to prepare, asks Guardian columnist John Harris

“Our greatest natural hazard is flooding, and we don’t prepare people for it”. We absolutely should. This is urgent. Another good reason to sign this petition calling for a National Climate Resilience plan - please do sign & share @climatemajority.bsky.social
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

I broke my leg at 12 and thought being a doctor seemed helpful.

Now after treating thousands of patients, I know the truth:
Prevention beats treatment.
Community beats isolation.
Small habits beat big gestures.

Parkrun teaches all three.

A photo of a parkrun

#parkrun is worth nearly £700m to UK economy and every £1 spent returned at least £16.70 in benefits.

Improvements to mental health (happiness and a sense of achievement) more important to increased life satisfaction than physical health.

blog.parkrun.com/uk/2025/10/1...

Really! Oh yes!!!!

I read that as NZ not NI Martin!! What a good idea 🇮🇪

A Hillsborough on the other side of the world!

Wes Streeting accused of ‘chaotic and incoherent approach’ to NHS reform Exclusive: thinktank report finds health secretary has failed to improve productivity, with the health service unlikely to meet its targets

Guardian’s top story is @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social’s analysis of NHS performance, the latest release from Public Service Performance Tracker 2025.

There are some positives from past years but these risk being undermined by loss of GP partners, social care failures and chaotic approach to reform

📚 shout out for Ultra Women- one of my books of the year! 🌟

@emmajourno.bsky.social & @lilycanter.bsky.social excellent book should be on your Christmas list people! 🌲

A manifesto told in real life stories of endurance sport, how inclusion, representation & research is still much needed 🌟

It feels very unsettling working in #NHS at the moment, there’s a lot of uncertainty all around us.

I think it is driven by lack of coherent strategy inc disproportionate funding across sectors. There’s a lot wrong right now & it has real effects. Driven by dogma not data.

Wes Streeting accused of ‘chaotic and incoherent approach’ to NHS reform Exclusive: thinktank report finds health secretary has failed to improve productivity, with the health service unlikely to meet its targets Wes Streeting has been accused of taking a “chaotic and incoherent approach” to reforming the NHS which makes it unlikely the government will hit its own targets, according to a damning report by the Institute for Government (IfG). The report praises elements of how the health secretary has managed the health service in his first year in office, including improving performance and staff retention in hospitals. Thepay settlement he reached with resident doctors last year avoided a winter plagued by NHS strikes Continue reading...

Wes Streeting accused of ‘chaotic and incoherent approach’ to NHS reform

Hmm, that’s hard to say Martin! I love my regular runs at Hillsborough, other Sheffield gems are Concord & Manor Fields. The big country parks- Nostell & Ushaw are special, Mensola in Florence was brilliant - such characters- but the heat! Yet to find one I didn’t like- how about you?

#parkrun Alphabet completed! Connecting with good friends & meeting new run directors, volunteers & local runners has been a way to see the parkrun community in different places & energises those weekly local trips. Also a lot of fun! Jubilee Spennymoor team a delight! #loveparkrun

I can’t think of anywhere else locally with more experience than them, but we aren’t a substitute prescribing practice so this might just be an assumption