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An idiot’s guide to the Ministry of Health

Neville Chamberlain on an ill-judged charm offensive. Now I like to consider myself a well brought up sort of chap, and was always taught never to bring up religion, politics or (heaven forfend!) a lady’s name at the dinner table....

Nature or nurture in surgical training

It’s Thursday in the UK, so that means time for another root and branch reform of medical training. If you’re not keen on the Greenaway Report (Shape of Training review) [1], don’t fret there’ll be another one along well before...

Armageddon and surgical outcomes

In the excitement of the festive season I am sure many of you will have omitted to commemorate the 60th anniversary of a highly significant world event. According to a small apocalyptic cult led by a Chicago housewife named Dorothy...

The seven ages of BACO

Chris Potter is a man whose prose style needs no introduction. Here, he gives us a poetic discourse on the different generations of attendees at BACO. Alfred, Lord Tennyson has washed his hair and can’t do anything with it. It’s...

BACO 2015 – Liverpool

Team BACO 2015: Academic Secretary, Peter Andrews; Treasurer, Chris Potter; Master, Ian Mackay and Local Host and Programme Director, Andrew Swift. (Photo taken by Academic Chairman, Shakeel Saeed.) In the height of a glorious English summer, over 1200 of the...

“Oh Manchester is Wonderful”...And other chants you might hear from the football stands or at BACO

Chris Potter is a lad of the North West, and we see him here letting his bleach blond hair grow out to show us his Northern roots. When I was a lad, Manchester was a troubled city in apparent terminal...

Human factors, theatre ethnographics and Girls Aloud

The issue of ambient music in the operating theatre is frequently controversial and has been known to cause ‘Bluetooth wars’, as different team members vie for control of the speakers. Our own Chris Potter gives his personal slant on this...

The curse of Sports Illustrated

“Not a supernatural curse, but a basic statistical concept of blinding simplicity.” What is ‘regression to the mean’? I am reliably informed that our former North American colonies publish a periodical known as Sports Illustrated (note, incidentally, the characteristically incorrect...

Could OtoRecall transform ENT learning?

Training continues to change and evolve in the face of changing working practices and, of course, the impact of unprecedented events like the pandemic. The basics remain important for safe practice as training and work continue to evolve; innovative tools...