CHENGYUE PENG (to No. 57 An Ding Men Wai Da Jie, Dong Cheng District, Beijing) Dear Ms Sun: I am writing to advocate more concern for long-term caregivers, whose labour has been undervalued and underpaid in and out of the family in today’s rapidly ageing China. I hope you can take some action as the…
Tag: medical anthropology
A Letter to the Secretary of Health and Social Care
ELLA ADENIKE ODUTOYE House of CommonsLondonSW1A 0AA Dear Steve Barclay, Gender bias is an issue that has burdened health care services for decades, as you said when announcing the women’s health strategy in 2022.1 It presents as ‘under representation of women in health studies, the trivialisation of women’s complaints, and discrimination in the awarding of…
Decolonising the medical curriculum: how do we get students involved?
LAUREN PEREIRA-GREENE 134 74 Huntley Street Building UCL Medical School London WC1E 6AU Dear Professor Faye Gishen, I am a third-year medical student, currently completing an intercalated degree in Medical Anthropology. I am writing to express concern around the disengagement between some medical students and efforts to decolonise the medical curriculum. The meaning of ‘decolonisation’…
A call to redress the attitudes and approaches to PMS in the UK
NANO QUIRKE-BAKRADZE To the Chief Executive of Health Education England, Dr Navina Evans 4 Stewart House 32 Russell Square WC1B 5DN 2nd April 2023 Dear Dr Navina Evans, I am writing to you to address my concern on the attitudes and approach to pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS). PMS is a syndrome where women experience a…
A Letter to the National Medical Commission of India: Improving doctor-patient relationships.
ANANYA CHOYAL To Dr Suresh Chandra Sharma Chairperson of the National Medical Commission Pocket-14, Sector – 8, Dwarka Phase – 1 New Delhi 110077 India The National Medical Commission (NMC) act of 2020 sets to reform the medical education sector. The act states that the commission would develop “competency based dynamic curriculum at undergraduate level,”…
The Hidden Toll of the Pandemic: Adolescent Social Isolation and Its Relevance as of Today
FAYEZA AHMED To Professor Chris Whitty Chief Medical Advisor and Expert Advisor Department of Health and Social Care 39 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0EU Dear Professor Chris Whitty, I am writing to express my concern about the ongoing issue of social isolation due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a Medical Anthropology student, my aim…
Does Data Really Save Lives? Considerations in Digitising Health
SERENE LIM To: Simon Bolton, CEO of NHS Digital Boar Lane, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS1 6AE Dear Mr. Bolton, “Data saves lives” has played a central role in NHS messaging since the pandemic and continues to be a driving factor behind the NHS’ digitisation initiatives. Whilst I applaud the forward thinking and acceptance of necessary…
Introduction to the Third Annual Advocacy Letter Series
CARRIE RYAN In the coming weeks, the third annual Advocacy Letter Series will feature 22 student letters that call for change on a wide range of health topics, including ageing care, sexual assault response, and moral injury amongst medical professionals. These student letters were written this year during the module I teach at UCL called…
Modernizing the US Coast Guard’s Miscarriage Leave Policy
JULIEANN THOMAS March 1, 2022 Rear Admiral Eric Jones Assistant Commandant for Human Resources (CG-1) United States Coast GuardWashington, DC 20593 United States of America Dear Admiral Jones, My name is JulieAnn Thomas. My husband, CDR * * * * (ret.) served for 20 years in the US Coast Guard (CG) as a cutterman, an…
Redressing Transgender Healthcare in the UK
KATERINA DOWNING University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT 12/05/2022 FAO: Cass Review Team NHS England PO Box 16738 Redditch B97 9PT Dear Dr. Cass, I came across the “Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people”[i] while following the appeal of the 2020 ruling that prevented under-16’s consenting to hormone…
An Open Letter to the American Obesity Foundation
VICTORIA ANTONIOU Dear Ms. Okon, I would like to begin this letter by acknowledging the hard work you and your organisation, The American Obesity Foundation (AOF), have been doing for many years now, aiming to prevent obesity and its subsequent diseases all over the United States. This is by no means an easy job, I…
Black Lives and Black Minds Matter – It’s Time to End Racism in Mental Health
ELEANOR BREEN O’BYRNE Dear Sajid Javid, I am writing to you regarding the troubling and longstanding racial disparities which exist within mental healthcare. This is evidenced by the the fact that black people are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than their white counterparts (NHS Digital, 2021). Racial disparities…
A Reformation of Transgender Healthcare in the United Kingdom
SEVEN MELL Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP House of Commons, London SW1A OAA 4th March 2022 Dear Secretary of State, I am writing to you, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to express an immense dissatisfaction with the NHS’ provision of healthcare for transgender individuals in the United Kingdom. My intent is…
Mental Health on Campus: An Investment in Long-Term Mental Health is an Investment in Individual and Institution
KABIR KHANNA Dr Michael Spence President & Provost’s Office University College London Gower Street London WC1E6BT United Kingdom Mental Health on Campus: An Investment in Long-Term Mental Health is an Investment in Individual and Institution Dear Dr Michael Spence, I write this letter as one of the 40,000 people currently studying at UCL. Over the…
Food is neither love nor salvation
HE ZHANG Professor Linying Li Beijing Institute of Technology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences China Women’s Health Network No. 5 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100081 Dear Professor Li, It is my pleasure to write to you. I am a Chinese student studying for the degree of Master of Arts in Health Humanities…
Changing the Singapore Approach to Sugar
NATASHA STURGESS Mr Gan Kim YongMinistry of Health16 College RoadCollege of Medicine Building Singapore 169854 6th March 2022 Dear Minister, I hope this letter comes to you well. I am writing to you in light of the recent parliamentary budget debate on the 28th February 2022, to which Sembawang Minister of Parliament (MP) Poh Li…
Dear Mr. Javid, CAMHS Is a Joke
NAPAT PRASITSIRIGUL Dear Mr. Javid, CAMHS is a joke. Like many others my age, I enjoy mindlessly scrolling through TikTok in my free time. Occasionally I come across a teenager parodying their experiences at CAMHS. These clips usually follow the same pattern: a teenager comes to their CAMHS appointment and discloses worrying information about their…
Prioritising Continuity Of Care Within General Practice
ROWAN VICK MAEER 18 High Street Bromsgrove B61 8HQ Dear Sajid Javid, I am writing to you concerning your proposed changes to the NHS in 2022, which involves restructuring primary care to ‘join up’ healthcare (2). Whilst I agree that ‘joined up’ care between the different health and social sectors is a priority, I am…
Fighting to Improve Disability Awareness within Healthcare
JILLIAN MANN Dear Erin Stampp, My brother, Hank, has faced a lifetime’s worth of scrutiny and maltreatment. Hank was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at the age of two years old. He is wheelchair bound with spastic quadriplegia. But more importantly, he is a Marvel-loving, Beatles fanatic with a contagious smile in his second year of law…
A letter for the 97%
ISOBEL THORLEY Dear Elizabeth Truss, Nadine Dorris and Priti Patel, As the Minister for Women and Equalities, Minister of State Mental Health, and Home Secretary, I am writing to you because you have the responsibility to tackle an issue that your government has failed to acknowledge, namely the lack of gender-based-approaches to policy implementation during…