Category: International

Gulf culture, social eating and health

Gulf culture, social eating and health

Posted by | 5 Mar 2018 | |

Bahrain has sometimes been called a string of shopping malls calling itself a country. This is quite a blinkered view. Bahrain is in fact a string of shopping malls and restaurants calling itself a country. Does it matter if we don’t eat together anymore? There are various markers to suggest that it does, particularly for children. The OECD state that students who do not regularly eat with their parents are significantly more likely to truant from school, and this correlates with school performance. And according to the 2014 European Congress on Obesity, children who do not eat dinner with their parents at least twice a week were 40 percent more likely to be overweight.

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A GP volunteer experience in Nepal with Raleigh International

A GP volunteer experience in Nepal with Raleigh International

Posted by | 8 Feb 2018 | |

Karan Ghatora is a GP with interests in pre-hospital and aerospace medicine. Rachna Patel is a GP interested in new experiences, constant learning and development. Namaste! We were GPs looking to provide medical support for a worthwhile cause, whilst furthering our personal and professional development. Enter Raleigh International. Raleigh is a non-government organisation which specialises in placing young volunteers abroad for sustainable development. The ICS (International Citizen Service) introduced in 2012 selects volunteers aged between 17- 23 to attend pre-deployment training in their own and host country, before departing on three-month projects. Currently Raleigh runs expedition projects in Nepal,...

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First world problems

First world problems

Posted by | 30 Oct 2017 | |

Summer in the Gulf gets quite warm. “Trailing spouses” (yes, that is the official visa term from the Ministry of Labour) tend to migrate north for the summer. Those of us working have to dash from one air conditioned environment to another.

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Volunteering to be Different

Volunteering to be Different

Posted by | 17 Oct 2017 | |

Kirsty Wooff, having spent her foundation years in Glasgow, took an ‘FY3’ year to travel and volunteer in Malawi and Nepal. Travelling for eight months… A once in a lifetime opportunity. Eight months and nine countries. But what has it done for me? As a person? And as a doctor? I set off, with my fiancé, at the end of October 2016. My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy a day before we left so goodbyes were particularly emotional and, as we boarded the bus to Heathrow, I did wonder – why are we doing this? We’re...

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General practice in Scotland and Australia: the experience of two GPs

General practice in Scotland and Australia: the experience of two GPs

Posted by | 2 Mar 2017 | , |

Jane Gall and Derek Wooff, are both general practitioners who worked in Stranraer, Scotland for 26 years and have been working in Shepparton Medical Centre for the last 6 years. General practice is a good job. It uses knowledge, experience, judgement and intuition to provide appropriate care and this complex process is both stimulating and rewarding. Currently with rising patient expectations and decreasing investment, solutions to workload issues may benefit from broader thinking and looking to other models of care. We wish to reflect on our experience of translating care from the NHS in Scotland to Medicare in Australia....

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