Medact’s blog brings together the online health community. We blog our own pieces as well as co-host articles written by other bloggers who work on the issues of poverty, violence, injustice and inequality.
We welcome pitches for new blogs on relevant issues, especially from members of the health community. Please see our guide for how to pitch.
Medact year in review 2021
Highlights, updates and reflections from across our movement
Twice the threat, but twice the opportunity
Elisabeth McElderry considers how the dual threats of nuclear weapons and climate change, and how to address them.
Reflections on a week at the climate talks
In this blog, Medact member Lesley Morrison shares her experiences and reflections from attending COP26 as an observer as well as the Glasgow march for Climate Justice.
Access to healthcare during a pandemic – a nurse’s perspective
This is a guest blog for the Patients Not Passports No Borders in the NHS Week of Action by Kirit, a nurse in the NHS, exploring the impacts of COVID-19 and the Hostile Environment on access to healthcare for marginalised people.
Prevention, not punishment: why health workers must resist the policing bill
As the government seeks to extend policing into spaces of healthcare, co-opt the language of public health, and introduce new practices which will worsen social inequalities rather than resolve them—resistance from the health community is vital.
Serious violence measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill undermine public health
A briefing focusing on the risks of harm associated with the proposed Serious Violence Duty (SVD) and Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) in the PCSC Bill.
Bearing Witness — a new digital campaign connects UK health workers with their peers in humanitarian disasters
‘Bearing Witness’, a new digital healthcare campaign, will seek to bring health workers in conflict zones together with those in the UK. In this blog, campaign co-founder and paediatrician Dr. Hesham Abdalla explains the reasoning behind the campaign.
Counterterrorism police can’t spin surveillance as care
Once you cut through the spin, the evidence about vulnerability support hubs raises serious ethical concerns.
Freedom day: Unequal freedoms = health injustice
“Freedom day” is clearly not about freedom from the risk of illness, death and destitution. It’s a continuation of the very system of governance that created avoidable public health harms from COVID-19 and the economic crisis. The premature ending of the public...
Steps in the right direction at the Biden-Putin Geneva Summit
On June 16th 2021, President Biden and President Putin’s joint declaration made at the Geneva summit gave hope of better diplomatic ties and a more stable relationship. In their statement, they reaffirmed the principle that “Nuclear war cannot be won and must never be...
The New Plan for Immigration will only compound mental health issues for refugees
Sanctuary seekers often arrive in the UK with a difficult set of premigration and migration journey experiences, and they are more likely than the host population or other people of the same ethnicity to experience mental health problems. The government’s ‘New Plan...
The unprotected many and the protected few: Working towards a health justice approach to future pandemic preparedness.
In our latest blog, Siddhartha Mehta and Sreeshna Jagadeesan discuss how we can work towards a health justice approach to future pandemic preparedness.