Down below is a quaint euphemism for the nether regions, and this tale is tale of trouble down below, of troublesome menses, and by coincidence it happened down under, in Oz. A family court judge ordered the hysterectomy of a severely disabled 11-year-old girl, and in so doing unleashed a storm of protest from the right-on people-first brigade, who accused the judge of sexism, of forcing sterilisation on the disabled, and, in so doing, acting in a manner ‘incomprehensible in the 21st century’.
At first glance, Angela’s case appears clear-cut, and the ruling, though delicate, defensible, and the protesters more wrong than right-on. Angela (a pseudonym) was born with Rett syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes a raft of disabilities that means she needs constant care for just about everything. Two years before the hearing…
Dr No is hopeless with numbers. Just being in the presence of statisticians causes a pressure of incomprehension to build up in his head. When they start to talk numbers, it is as if they are speaking in tongues; and when their chalk squeaks on the blackboard, all he sees is so many hieroglyphics.
That smuggest of colleges, the Royal College of Physicians of London, already infamous for its part in the MMC/MTAS disaster, has of late been cozying up ever more closely to the Department of Health, and its chief pongo, Sir Liar Liar Pants on Fire Donaldsong. Earlier this week it moved still closer, issuing an right-on report damning callous smokers who 
‘All social engineering is preceded by verbal engineering’
Dr No’s mother, a fit 80-something year old, recently attended an ophthalmology clinic, on the advice of her optician, and was told – out of the blue, by a nurse – she hadn’t even seen a doctor – that a bed had been arranged for her to come in two days later to have her cataract removed. The nurse was most put out when Dr No’s mother – who knows her mind very well – said she had no intention of coming in for an operation she neither knew about, nor did she need. Yes, she does wear reading glasses – but otherwise her eyesight is fine.
The one-time partly elected General Medical Council, now reincarnated as a State appointed Stasi, has started to rev up its revalidation machine. 
Medium shot of Kemp standing outside GMC Towers. 
Today is Mothering Sunday, the day when we thank and honour the mother who has nurtured us. Dr No has been doing his filial duty – when it comes to Mothering Sunday even Dr No says ‘Yes’ – but thinking of nurturing set him thinking of the other nurturances and influences that have shaped the way he is. There are a number, but without doubt many cluster round his years as a medical student, when a young, volatile, opinionated, yet still malleable teenager was transformed at the anvil of apprenticeship into a brash and brittle junior Dr No, who walked the wards burning bright from the heat of the forge.
One of the most bizarre facts about modern medicine is that most of the time, for most people, most drugs don’t work. Naturally, this is something that Big Pharma is keen to keep hidden. Even most doctors are only dimly aware that most of the drugs they peddle might not always be what they are cracked up to be. At a time when drug companies and doctors are pushing ever more pills onto ever more patients, we should perhaps be a little more savvy about the pharmaceutical pact we enter into when we agree to pop pills.
We have seen in recent times how secure our national databases are. HM Revenue & Customs, the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Health, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have all been reprimanded for serious ‘lapses’ that have put at risk the personal data of millions of UK subjects. On a wider scale, The Information Commissioner reported in January that there had been over 400 data breaches by government and the NHS in the past two years. Last month, the national children’s database, which records details of England’s 11 million under 18 year olds, was described as ‘not stable’ – official-speak for yet another security breach. Our national databases, it seems, are about as secure as a paper bag full of water.