Catherine Pope
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cjpope.bsky.social
Catherine Pope
@cjpope.bsky.social
Professor of Medical Sociology, Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care, Oxford
Reposted by Catherine Pope
The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think.

New piece from me.

open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
The truth about impartiality at the BBC
And the hysteria of the current "crisis"
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
Last chance to turn it off.

On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.

To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
October 31, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Our paper about GP access is out now (TLDR patients and receptionists are engaged in a quest to get the prize of an appointment but are thwarted by digital barriers and practice systems) doi.org/10.1111/1467...
#NIHR @oxprimarycare.bsky.social
Bugbears in the Waiting Room: Revisiting Arber and Sawyer's Classic Study of GP Reception Work Using Ethnography in Eight English General Practices
In 1985, Arber and Sawyer described the discretionary rationing power of general practice receptionists. Our paper revisits this territory. Much has changed in the intervening decades. Digitalisation...
doi.org
October 14, 2025 at 3:46 PM
@gwr.com why oh why oh why do you run short trains to London and cancel the seat reservations. (Asking for a friend) #fail
October 14, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
Well done Shafaq Aftab. When a reviewer stole her work and published it under his own name, she fought for a YEAR to get the journal to retract the paper. Just wondering why it took Wiley a YEAR to do this. 🧪 #academicsky

retractionwatch.com/2025/10/03/w...
Wiley retracts study stolen by reviewer, following Retraction Watch coverage
A Wiley journal has retracted a paper more than a year after a researcher reported the work was hers and had been stolen by a reviewer for another journal. As we reported in July, Shafaq Aftab, now…
retractionwatch.com
October 12, 2025 at 4:57 AM
gonna need a big apology... I've been angry since #Thatcher

Tories need a leader who can say sorry - on.ft.com/3KA8bmR via @FT
Tories need a leader who can say sorry
British public remain angry with the previous government, with many turning to Reform as alternative to Labour
on.ft.com
October 9, 2025 at 10:56 AM
@petescarbs.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I vote we have Sosajis and Bwerger's....🌭🍔😀
EU parliament votes to ban meat names for plant-based foods
Pressure to ban meat labels for plant-based products comes from Europe's livestock farmers.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 9, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
My thoughts on job advisers in GP surgeries. As you might guess, I'm not a fan.
Will make anxious patients worse. How about incentivising employers instead of telling patients to try harder.
October 9, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
A rapid reponse to my article:
'Despite our practice putting in 6 months of work to prepare for the roll out the coverage in the national press has led to overwhelming demand which has pushed us to the limits of safer capacity. Patients have to read and acknowledge a warning about not using..1/2
According to Wes Streeting, GPs are less convenient than hairdressers.
My latest on why goodwill has drained away as we try to provide a safe & equitable service in the teeth of a gale of nonsense from NHS England & the govt.
bmj.com/cgi/content/...
Helen Salisbury: GPs versus hairdressers? Streeting has no idea
The row about online access to GP services continues.1 In April it was agreed that GPs would keep online portals open in their core hours, but a six month delay was put in place. This was so that NHS ...
bmj.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:31 PM
At #RCGP25 - inspired by plenary about #kindness in health care. Mum's GP did all this when mum was dying. Not sure my family have experienced any of this in the last few years. 😢
October 9, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
Fuck. Ing. Hell.
This Israeli government decision to host Tommy Robinson will widen the growing gulf between the Netanyahu government and the British public, including the broad majority of Jews in Britain (3/4 of whom dsapproved of Netanyahu, before this new link to this anti-Muslim racist UK far right convict).
October 3, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
The politics of drawing a moral line: When we need to call out racism for what it is open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...
The politics of drawing a moral line
The politics of drawing a moral line.
open.substack.com
October 3, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
PubMed is in trouble

This is beyond bad for medical research

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
October 3, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
Lancet: Offline: Those one should not forgive (Makary and Bhattacharya)

by Richard Horton

bit.ly/3IPC0PD
October 3, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
Three more days to wait, and our new album Ricordanze will grace the airwaves and the internet! In the meantime, here's a comprehensive interview with Robert Hugill to pique your curiosity about our #nuntastic project. www.planethugill.com/2025/09/one-...
One little book sitting in a convent: Laurie Stras introduces the background to Musica Secreta's new recording of music from the Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript
One little book sitting in a convent - interview: Laurie Stras introduces Musica Secreta's disc of music from the Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript
www.planethugill.com
September 28, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
This week, I’ve secured £20 million for neighbourhoods in Millbrook and Redbridge, through Labour's Pride In Place fund. 💸

Even better, local people will decide how to spend it. 🎉

What would you prioritise? 🙋🏾‍♀️
September 27, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Horrific and damning evidence from the war zone medics. #BMJ
"resulting injury profiles resembled those reported in combat settings among trained military personnel, highlighting the burden of trauma among civilians in #Gaza." www.bmj.com/content/390/...
Patterns of war related trauma in Gaza during armed conflict: survey study of international healthcare workers
Objective To systematically document the patterns of war related injuries in Gaza, Palestine. Design Survey study of international healthcare workers, August 2024 to February 2025. Setting Gaza, Pal...
www.bmj.com
September 27, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
"Do health professionals have a special duty to speak up against the genocide? I think we do."

Fiona Godlee explains why she protested against events in Gaza and the government's proscription of Palestine Action
www.bmj.com/content/390/...
September 23, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Catherine Pope
There's a reason why they want to invent a cause of autism. It's the same reason they want to claim they have a cure. It's to remove any emotional or legal obligations to care for or accommodate autistic people
September 23, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Thank you @london.gov.uk Sadiq Khan for your continued dignity and for role modelling decency and moral values.
September 23, 2025 at 3:29 PM
All this talk of the Rapture reminded me of this 1956 social psychology classic: When Prophecy Fails by Festinger, Riecken and Schachter.

Their 5 conditions /reasons why people hold onto beliefs also seem helpful for our current times .... 1/2
September 23, 2025 at 7:58 AM
This. Well said @nisreenalwan.bsky.social (We have made the wider context more unequal for 20 years. Shouting at the victims that it's their fault ain't gonna fix it)
Public health shouldn’t be centred around individual behaviour change. It should be focused on changing the wider commercial, social, environmental & ultimately political determinants of health. Behaviour change will naturally come when healthy behaviours are facilitated by those structural changes.
September 21, 2025 at 7:55 AM