He Never Even Touched Me!

When I was a medical student one of the basic skills we needed to learn was how to examine a patient. There were three stages to this process: inspection, palpation, and auscultation. This means looking at the whole patient and the part of the body of interest; feeling with one’s hand, say, the abdomen for swellings or other [...]

2026-02-05T14:13:00+00:0018 January 2026|Categories: Controversies|Tags: , , |

Jess’s and Martha’s Rules Should Not be Needed

As I mention in my medical memoir, An English Doctor in Japan, sometimes the encounter with patients for no good reason may be referred to as ‘the front line’ or even as ‘the coal face’ of general practice. Worse, in discussions with colleagues during a coffee break, when asking if any interesting patients had been seen, the cynical [...]

2026-02-06T07:50:06+00:0026 September 2025|Categories: Controversies|Tags: , , , |
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