Medicine and society
- How do you see the UK’s healthcare system in 20 years’ time?
- If you had £1 billion to spend on one element of healthcare, what would it be and why?
- What single healthcare intervention could change the health of the UK population the most?
- What is wrong with the NHS?
- What problems are there in the NHS other than the lack of funding?
- What relevance has the Hippocrates oath to modern-day medicine?
- What would you prefer in a doctor? Bad communication skills with good clinical skills or good communication skills with bad clinical skills? Why?
- Would you argue that medicine is a science or an art, and why?
- How do politics influence health care provision? Is it inevitable?
- Why do you think we hear so much about doctors and the NHS in the media today?
- Do you think doctors should set a good example to their patients in their own lives? How or why might this be difficult?
- In what ways do you think doctors can promote good health, other than direct treatment of illness?
- Do you think doctors and the NHS get bad press, and if so, why?
- From what you have read and found out, where do you see the health service going?
- What are the arguments for and against non-essential surgery being available on the NHS?
- What does the current government see as the national priorities in health care? Do you agree with these?
- How should the health service achieve a balance between promoting good health, and treating ill health?
- What do you think are the similarities and differences between being a doctor today and being a doctor 50 years ago?
- Should doctors have a role in regulating contact sports, such as boxing?
- Do you think doctors should ever strike?
- Do you think patient’s treatments should be limited by the NHS budget or do they have the right to new therapies no matter what the cost?
- What does the term ‘inequalities in health’ mean to you?
- Do you think medicine should be more about changing behaviour to prevent disease or treating existing disease?
- What do you think is the purpose of the health service in the 21st century?
- What do you think are the chief difficulties faced by doctors in their work?
- Why do you think people in the north of England live, on average, 5 years less than those in the south? Do you think this should be a matter for government intervention?
- What are the arguments for and against people paying for their own health care as and when they need it?
- What do you understand by the term ‘holistic’ medicine? Do you think it falls within the remit of the NHS?
- How accurately do you think the media (particularly television) tend to portray the role of the doctor?
- Do you think the bulk of medical treatment takes place in hospitals or in the community? What makes you think this?
- What do you think about the way doctors are shown in the media, say in the Simpsons or on the news? How do you think this will affect patients’ views of their own doctors?
- What do you think is the greatest threat to the health of the British population today?
- Ten years ago most doctors in hospitals wore white coats; now few do. Why do you think this is? What do you think are the arguments for and against white coats?
- Animals that are thought to be suffering are ‘put down’. Should human suffering be treated in the same way?
- Do you think more doctors or more nurses would be of greatest benefit to the nation’s health?
- What are the arguments for and against banning the sale of tobacco?
- In the UK at present 60% of medical students are female. Do you think we should have equal quotas for medical school places for males and females? What do you think will be the consequences of having more female doctors than male doctors?
- What issues should be considered in deciding to terminate or not continue a patient’s life-sustaining treatment?
- Medicine will bring you into contact with a vast range of different people, with different cultures; what experience have you had of different types of people?
- What are the consequences of obesity for health services? Why?
- Can you tell us about a significant recent advance in medicine or science? Why is it significant? Why has this interested you?
- Tell us about something in the history of medicine that interests you. Why was it important?
- What do you think was the greatest public health advance in the 20th century?
- People are living longer and longer. Should doctors take credit for this?
- What lessons can be learned from how the Covid 19 pandemic was handled? What would you have done differently?
- How do you think the rise of information technology has influenced and will influence the practice of medicine?