I hovered in the doorway as the palliative care nurse who I was shadowing that day indicated I should. She entered the darkened side room to check on a male patient. I could barely make out his shape on the bed; it looked like he was slightly propped up and in a pale green hospital gown. Besides him in the …
Tag Archives: United Kingdom
‘Weather-ing’ the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the UK
This article is part of the series: The Age of COVID-19
Few things are more stereotypically British than discussing the weather. A sense of national pride seems to pervades this discussion. In fact, during our time in the UK (as three of the co-authors grew up outside the UK), we have viewed it as an art form, and one we very much enjoying trying our hand at. It is almost comforting …
Tommies: a very British haunt?
This article is part of the series: The Hospital Multiple
Designed by: okb-buro.com/Earlier this year, the world became familiar with the facade of Britain’s St Thomas’ Hospital when, in late March, it became the backdrop for breaking news. After UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to the hospital with COVID-19, the BBC began broadcasting live bulletins from the hospital’s North Wing, where Johnson was convalescing in intensive care. …
Reshaping the bulimic self
This article is part of the series: Reworking the Cognitive Bias
The current clinical and social explanations of bulimia in the United Kingdom are based upon two premises: 1) that bulimia is a derivative of anorexia, and 2) that it is a hierarchically “lower” disorder, meaning that it is worse to have than anorexia. These explanations of bulimia revolve around the concept of “control” and conceptualize a particular bulimic “subjectivity.” By …
Fit for Purpose? Prime Minister Johnson’s Two Bodies and the UK Better Health Strategy
This article is part of the series: Dispatches from the pandemic
Amongst the UK’s current Conservative Government, rhetorically invoking the body politic is common practice. For example, in 2019 Number 10 Special Advisor Dominic Cummings argued that a European reformist faction within the Tory party “should be treated like a metastasising tumour and excised from the UK body politic” while UK Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson deployed the metaphor as a …
“The Hostel saved me, really” – addiction and homelessness under Covid-19
This article is part of the series: Dispatches from the pandemic
When I did my second shift of volunteering at the Hostel[1], new rules were already in place: ‘stay-at-home’ orders had been issued and were enforceable (if not necessarily enforced) by police all over the UK. I arrived to prepare dinner for all the guests and was surprised to see so many people in the Lounge, the main hang-out area for everyone at the Hostel, waiting …