Consultant anaesthetist
Poulton, Gloucestershire
Joined July 2012
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- Followers235
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Ben Maxwell retweeted
It was a disastrous mistake in 2004 to scrap family doctors. I tried and failed to bring them back. Will this government do any better?
Ben Maxwell retweeted
Okay, I'm breaking character here. This is not a satire post. My 2-year-old son is in a wheelchair that we can't fit into our car. We are not eligible to apply for a wheelchair accessible vehicle until he is three--and even then we would have to pay about £13,000 towards it (which we don't have).
The idea that disabled people get given free cars willy-nilly is bullshit. My son has to attend regular appointments at various locations. He has a team of specialists dedicated to helping him with an extremely rare neurological condition that means he needs around the clock supervision.
He can't even hold his own head up so a regular car seat is out of the question. He was using a baby seat, but he's outgrown that. It's really tough for us to get around because misinformation from pricks like Nigel influences public opinion. Does this seem right?
Ben Maxwell retweeted
I’ve had a lot of people asking me about the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, as well as the upcoming execution by firing squad that’s supposed to be livestreamed. Having spent nearly 20 years on death row, my thoughts and feelings about these things are so vast that I sometimes struggle to find a place to begin. I became close friends with a man who had committed murder. He was like a brother to me. I once watched him break down crying, trembling as he told me he wished he was as evil as the world believed him to be, because then he wouldn’t have to care about what he’d done. Fifteen years later, he was still having nightmares about it. I know in my soul that he would never hurt another person again. But I’ve also watched a man being stabbed to death in prison. I cried for days afterward, and something inside me was changed forever. I learned that some people are capable of extraordinary transformation, while others remain capable of terrible violence even behind prison walls. There are no simple answers here. No slogans or political arguments that can adequately address the complexity of human beings, guilt, punishment, and suffering.
But there is one thing I want to say about the upcoming execution by firing squad. Don’t watch it. Whatever you believe about the death penalty, even if you think the person being executed deserves to die, don’t watch it. You cannot witness a human being being killed and simply walk away unchanged. What you see becomes part of you. It follows you into places you never expected it to reach. There are things I witnessed in prison that I would give anything to forget, things that still cast a shadow over my life decades later. There’s a difference between understanding that terrible things happen in the world and deliberately making yourself a spectator to them. I don’t have all the answers about justice, punishment, or forgiveness. But I do know that killing another human being should never become so ordinary that we turn it into something to watch from the comfort of our living rooms.
My guess why Trump moved the bombers from Fairford: the UK Government refused permission for lethal force in defence of US property
Ben Maxwell retweeted
Sugammadex vs. neostigmine
Future work should therefore focus not only on further drug comparisons but also on interventions that improve adherence to quantitative monitoring guidelines and on the cost-effectiveness of different antagonist strategies in real-world systems.
#anaesthesia #MedX #MedTwitter
doi.org/10.1111/anae.70423
Ben Maxwell retweeted
The ONS has revised its historical productivity estimates.
According to the new numbers, the UK did not have especially slow productivity growth after the financial crisis.
Find out what the consequences might be for the public finances ⤵️ buff.ly/AnlLKqL
ALT Horizontal bar chart ranking average annual real output per hour growth across high‑income OECD countries (2007–2019), showing Australia highest and Finland lowest, with the UK highlighted in red at 1.0% (new measure) and 0.5% (old measure).
How does UK tax level compare historically and internationally? Well, it is complicated, but given NHS Care our taxes are low. Is that why our communal spending decisions prioritise low cost over value?
Ahead of the Budget, our new explainer takes a look at how the amount of tax the government collects, and the amount of tax paid by the ‘average worker’, compares historically and internationally. fullfact.org/economy/tax-rev…
I am surprised that @RoyalMail aren't mis-selling their 'Royal Mail 48' service. Many would assume this meant a parcel would arrive in 48 hours. They'd be mistaken. It is an 'aspiration' only!! No publicly shared audit of how often such parcels are delivered in 2 days. V poor.
Ben Maxwell retweeted
Expenditure on healthcare per person by country according to most recent figures:
🇺🇸 $14,885
🇨🇭$9,963
🇩🇪 $9,365
🇳🇱 $8,436
🇸🇪 $7,871
🇫🇷 $7,367
UK expenditure per person:
Ben Maxwell retweeted
Best of luck to all those collecting exam results today: #GCSE #Exams #resultsday #schools #education
Please remember this from
‘Young Minds’ :
Ben Maxwell retweeted
I'm reminded of the advice I once got regarding taking referrals as a med reg.
Either the person referring knows what they're doing, in which case you need to see the patient. Or they don't know what they're doing. In which case you REALLY need to see the patient.
Quarter of hospital referrals are sent straight back to GPs mol.im/a/16056969 via @DailyMail
Ben Maxwell retweeted
@TomSwarbrick1
A fairer, modern approach to taxing businesses would be to move away from “physical presence” business taxes that let online, foreign headquartered firms pocket almost all profits in low‑tax jurisdiction. A mix of updated nexus rules, profit‑allocation methods, and a global minimum tax.
Ben Maxwell retweeted
In the discussion on the review of benefit support for disabled people the Conservative shadow minister used the usual tactics of trying to divide people & stigmatise those claiming social security benefits. I called for this language to be put behind us once and for all.
@TPLINKUK I have two of your WiFi access points. Both have stopped working this week. For both it seems to be the power adapter 190062-15 which is on the blink. Is there a common problem with these? V irritating
Ben Maxwell retweeted
If people genuinely believe Burnham won’t receive the exact same media onslaught, they’ve not been paying attention.
Starmer is not, objectively, bad. This idea that he is somehow the worst PM in British history is frankly laughable.
Liz truss lasted 49 days, crashed the pound and was laughed out of Downing Street.
Since Labour took office, Keir Starmer’s government has:
• Scrapped the two-child benefit limit, lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and putting money back into some of the hardest-pressed households in the country.
• Expanded free school meals, cutting costs for families and making sure more children get a proper meal during the school day.
• Expanded funded childcare, reducing one of the biggest monthly costs facing working parents and making it easier for people to stay in work.
• Raised the National Living Wage, increasing pay for millions of low-paid workers.
• Strengthened workers’ rights, giving people greater protection against insecure work and bad employers.
• Introduced statutory sick pay from the first day of illness, so workers are less likely to choose between their health and their wages.
• Ended no-fault evictions, giving renters more security in their homes.
• Brought rail operators back into public ownership, taking key services out of failed private hands and giving the public a stronger stake in how they are run.
• Cut NHS waiting lists from their post-pandemic peak, meaning more patients are being seen sooner.
• Raised the state pension through the triple lock, protecting pensioners’ incomes against rising costs.
• Scrapped the old non-dom tax regime, making some of the wealthiest people in the country pay more fairly.
• Added VAT to private school fees, raising money from those most able to contribute.
• Removed business rates relief from private schools, ending an unjustified tax break.
• Increased neighbourhood policing, putting more officers and PCSOs back into communities.
• Helped bring knife crime down, meaning fewer families face the devastation of serious violence.
• Recorded the lowest homicide rate since the 1970s, a material improvement in public safety.
• Created Great British Energy, giving Britain a publicly owned clean energy company.
• Created the National Wealth Fund, backing investment in industry, infrastructure and clean energy.
• Passed planning reforms aimed at getting homes and major projects built faster.
• Improved relations with the EU, reducing diplomatic hostility and rebuilding practical cooperation.
• Agreed a UK-EU security partnership, strengthening cooperation on defence and European security.
• Signed a long-term partnership with Ukraine, reinforcing Britain’s support against Putin’s invasion.
• Secured new trade agreements, opening up markets for British businesses.
• Helped restore seriousness to government after years of scandal, chaos and decline.
People do not have to like Starmer. They do not have to vote Labour. But pretending this is the record of the worst Prime Minister in British history is absurd.
