The Today Programme and a discussion on Detoxing

April has been, as ever, an enormously busy month, but rather than April Fool’s pranks, I was fortunate enough to spend some time with John Humphrys of the Today Programme and the senior team of Imperial’s Hammersmith Hospital. It was really interesting looking at how that hospital has developed – it’s now very high tech, but at the same time, also very patient-centred, and the staff were fantastic.

In addition to giving an interview myself, it was fascinating to speak to some of the patients on the ward about how their lives and their experience of healthcare has changed since the introduction of the NHS; it was really interesting to hear what high value they placed on general practice, and highlighted again the hugely important role generalism and care, given in the community, will have to play in the future. The interview will be spread out over a number of days leading up to the election.

The last couple of weeks have seen a number of successes, the first and most important being the fact that Brussels have decided to bring forward a review of how the UK can assess the skills and language of doctors coming to work here. This is an important turning point for an extremely important issue.

The College’s work on securing better access to psychological therapies continues to make advances, and one of the major successes this month can be attributed to you, the members. We had over 1400 responses from you – thank you. The work of the College, along with the work from a number of other organisations, has secured commitment from all three of the main political parties to improve access to talking therapies following the General Election. This is an incredible development, and one that further highlights the influence we GPs can have if we work together. Many thanks and congratulations to you all.

Work on the new College building is moving along nicely, and I had the exciting opportunity this week to meet with the designers to discuss the proposed state-of-the-art, 350-seater auditorium. The new building promises to provide a magnificent new home for the staff and members of the College, and I am looking forward to it enormously, despite the fact we won’t move until after I have stepped down!

A smaller, but by no means less relevant success was the fact that the Baggies (my football team, West Bromwich Albion) were promoted!

I enjoy my media work enormously, and while it is important to ensure the public are armed with factual information about their health, sometimes giving this information can be a bit of fun. I took part in a debate for BBC Radio West Midlands, my stomping ground, about nutritional detoxes. I went head to head with an expert who talked about, among other things, the ‘Aqua Detox Foot Spa’, which by some apparent magic draws toxins out through the feet. I suggested that human beings had kidneys, which were pretty effective after millions of years of evolution. It was a great opportunity to debunk some of the ludicrous myths that pervade in this multi-million pound industry that, I believe, is frankly something of a con. The point I made, above all others, is that the key to good general health is to eat less, eat better, drink lots of water and get plenty of exercise; the human body is a wonderfully advanced machine, and, providing you give it the right fuel, can detox perfectly well on its own.

Thanks as always for your support. I value your opinions and feedback enormously, and I urge you to get in touch if you have any comments or questions for me.