Dr Rachel Clarke

It was a pleasure to contribute to this @theguardian.com “The Experts” piece on what death can teach us about how to live. No-one is ever an expert on mortality, but here are my personal top 4 lessons, distilled from everything my patients have taught me as palliative care doctor…

It was a pleasure to contribute to this @theguardian.com “The Experts” piece on what death can teach us about how to live. No-one is ever an expert on mortality, but here are my personal top 4 lessons, distilled from everything my patients have taught me as palliative care doctor…

It was a pleasure to contribute to this @theguardian.com “The Experts” piece on what death can teach us about how to live. No-one is ever an expert on mortality, but here are my personal top 4 lessons, distilled from everything my patients have taught me as palliative care doctor…

💥💥 Tonight! 💥💥 Please join me, @drkathrynmannix.bsky.social & Sarah Perry online at 7pm discussing April's @hayfestival.bsky.social book club choice, Paul Kalanithi's wonderful "When Breath Becomes Air". Sign up is free 💙📚🩺

🧵/ The NHS is about to undergo one of the most radical – and scandalous - changes in its history. From 1st April (the public are the fools in this), GPs will be contractually obliged to seek remote “advice & guidance” from hospital clinicians, making it even harder to see an NHS specialist.

I believe this is a national health scandal from a govt that apparently cares more about good spin than it does about good patient care. If you feel the same, please – please – write to your MP & tell them why. Please shout about this online, anywhere you can. Don’t let this slide. Thank you.

🧵/ The NHS is about to undergo one of the most radical – and scandalous - changes in its history. From 1st April (the public are the fools in this), GPs will be contractually obliged to seek remote “advice & guidance” from hospital clinicians, making it even harder to see an NHS specialist.

..The aim, says the Times, is to reduce the number of hospital outpatient appointments by 30 million p/a. And the government, in a quite breathtaking example of political spin, is presenting this as “good” for patients - as though all those people who’ve been waiting months or even years..

🧵/ The NHS is about to undergo one of the most radical – and scandalous - changes in its history. From 1st April (the public are the fools in this), GPs will be contractually obliged to seek remote “advice & guidance” from hospital clinicians, making it even harder to see an NHS specialist.

..that at best will delay patients’ access to the specialist treatment they need, at worse sacrifice those patients on the altar of fake news about “falling” waiting lists. You don’t need me to point out the potential patient safety risks. We all know that time, in medicine, can be everything..

🧵/ The NHS is about to undergo one of the most radical – and scandalous - changes in its history. From 1st April (the public are the fools in this), GPs will be contractually obliged to seek remote “advice & guidance” from hospital clinicians, making it even harder to see an NHS specialist.

I am incredibly honoured be giving this year’s State of the Nation Lecture at Cambridge Lit Fest on Saturday 25 April, 12pm, in the beautiful setting of the Cambridge Union. My talk is entitled: “A Kindwashed Nation? Who Counts, What Counts and Making Britain Care Again” (1/4)

Numbness & hopelessness are understandable responses to the powerlessness we feel today. But we are *not* powerless. Each of us has the capacity to do something radical & transformative here, now, today - by paying our full attention to another human being & relating to them with care. (4/4)

I am incredibly honoured be giving this year’s State of the Nation Lecture at Cambridge Lit Fest on Saturday 25 April, 12pm, in the beautiful setting of the Cambridge Union. My talk is entitled: “A Kindwashed Nation? Who Counts, What Counts and Making Britain Care Again” (1/4)

It draws upon everything I've learned from my years in the NHS & as a journalist & author. It boils down to this: a fundamental, fierce conviction that the simple acts of care we extend to one another are not only the vital glue of human existence, but also our radical superpower. (2/4)

Thank you so much @tomgatti.bsky.social & @theobserveruk.bsky.social for showcasing the richness of non-fiction by women & the vitally important work of @womensprize.bsky.social in championing women's voices in literature. (1/2) observer.co.uk/culture/book...

On #IWD2026, it feels fitting to sing the praises of this extraordinary book, read beautifully by Emma Thompson. If you’ve yet to read it, please do. Gisèle Pelicot’s strength, courage & basic human decency ring out from its pages - as does the grotesque misogyny of her courtroom experience...

Over and over again, scores of rapists seriously sought to use as their defence the claim that the lifeless form being abused on video ‘wanted’ it, ‘consented’ to it, ‘enjoyed’ it, and in truth was such a slut and whore she clearly didn’t count as worthy of human respect anyway...

I’m sorry, what? How can Chelsea & Westminster Hospital’s official charity *possibly* accept a £1 million ‘donation’ - meaning, in reality, an attempt to buy public credibility - from the Sacklers? Yes, those Sacklers, whose company, Purdue Pharma, caused >800k deaths from pumping out opioids. 1/3

This donation - to an NHS charity no less - is obscene, it’s blood money. The only reason the Sacklers are still making these public displays of ‘charitable’ largesse is to try and wash the bloodstains from their sordid reputation. Shame on CW+ for being their willing patsies. 2/3