I still remember the 29 tiny black coffins - each with a white cross - laid out in front of the General Medical Council. That was 1998 and the start of the disciplinary hearing into failures of two surgeons at Bristol Royal Infirmary.
The Bristol heart scandal led to a wide-ranging inquiry which concluded in 2001 that dozens of babies had died needlessly. It recommended that children's heart surgery should be carried out in fewer specialist centres.
There are many things that pregnant women should definitely avoid. Chief among these are cigarettes.
There is overwhelming evidence that smoking is harmful to the developing baby, can lead to premature birth and low birth weight, and increase the risk of cot death.
The emergence of the novel coronavirus is a reminder of the potential threat we face from emerging diseases. A decade ago hundreds of people were killed by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Although the novel coronavirus is from the same large family of pathogens as SARS, it is very different. And although media reports usually mentions the new virus and SARS in the same breath it is worth pointing out that coronaviruses also produce infections like the common cold.
There is a new disease in town - at least there is if you live in eastern China. Long after most people had lost interest in - and the media had stopped writing about - H5N1 bird flu, we now have to get used to another assortment of letters and numbers. So should we all worry about H7N9?
"Yes and no" seems to sum up the view of experts. Yes, because of the potential of flu viruses to cause global disease outbreaks - pandemics. No, because the virus is still confined to China and has no ability at present to transmit between humans.
Producing vaccines against viral threats is a potentially hazardous business and that's why manufacturers have to operate strict controls to ensure that no pathogens escape.
British scientists have developed a new method to create an entirely synthetic vaccine which doesn't rely on using live infectious virus, meaning it is much safer.
What is it about the Italians? They smoke more than us, they earn less, their economy is in even worse shape than ours, they spend less on healthcare, and yet - they live longer. Not just a bit, but a whopping 18 months more on average.
They also have more years of good health before disease and disability set in.
The emergence of any new virus that poses a threat to human health is a cause for concern.
If the pathogen can spread from person to person, it becomes a significant issue. But the indications are the dangers to the general population are very low.
Glance at the latest figures for polio incidence and it would appear that the world is within touching distance of eradicating the disease.
Last year there were just 205 cases of naturally occurring poliovirus compared with 650 cases in 2011 and a staggering 350,000 a quarter of a century ago.
If you signed up to a medical trial you might assume that the results of the research would eventually be published. But that is far from certain. Pharmaceutical companies are under no legal obligation to publish all the available data about drugs.
A group of 53 clinical trial participants has written an open letter to the European Medicines Agency - the body which licenses drugs. Some of the individuals are healthy volunteers and other have conditions like cancer.
Urgent appeals for blood donors seem to be a regular event - certainly at this time of year. So what triggers an appeal and is it feasible that we could ever run out of blood?
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), which runs the service in England and north Wales, put out an urgent appeal for O negative donors last week. It currently has just 3.2 days of O neg blood, while the Welsh Blood Service has four days and the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service has 6.1 days.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~55~RS~)
