TownOsteo - let’s talk - optimising health together

20/10/2025

17/10/2025

One of my patients could have gone blind!

15/10/2025

A footballer & his clinician (me!) unable to access basic care information. Let’s campaign for change.

11/10/2025

Human beings are being deliberately harmed & entire professions & services ruined - for what?

A letter sent by senior members of the union has been condemned for advising doctors to sabotage the Pharmacy First scheme, which they claim undermines them

14/09/2025

The same situation for NHS Musculoskeletal services (backs, shoulders, knee pain etc).

Deep generational corruption in the NHS provides poor value for money, little quality, next to no service & patients left in pain without adequate answers.

I’m working on a project exposing some of this.

12/08/2025

It costs the Tax-pay £109 per NHS physiotherapy visit (phone or in-person!)

27/07/2025

Keep pushing 👊🏾
The road to recovery is forged in blood, sweat & pain.
(Under professional supervision!)

19/06/2025

Iranian war -
economic & health impact to the UK.

This model has not taken into account
1) The funds the UK will send to Israel for their
rebuild.
2 In the next few months doctors & nurses will
likely strike for extra pay.

22/05/2025

Title: 1,000 Newly Trained GPs Facing Benefits? Or Facing a Crisis of Integrity?

The headlines scream of injustice: “Up to 1,000 new GPs face unemployment and may need to claim benefits.” After over a decade of expensive, subsidised training, we are told these highly educated professionals are now viewing state benefits as a viable option simply because they can’t secure a post in general practice.

Let’s pause.

These individuals are not just graduates—they’re professionals with 10 years of medical and vocational training. They understand illness, suffering, systems, and supposedly, socioeconomic realities. Are we really to believe they don’t understand how the benefits system works? Or is the real issue a mindset problem—one of entitlement over adaptability?

It’s a troubling reflection. If, in the absence of a GP role, the default reaction is to avoid work entirely rather than seek allied employment—locum, private, urgent care, digital health, research, or even non-clinical sectors—then we must ask: are we preparing resilient professionals, or simply credentialed dependents?

This same medical lobby has, for years, threatened mass exodus to Australia, the UAE, and beyond—for better pay and less pressure. Well, here’s your moment. The gates are open. If the system here fails you, exercise the same agency you’ve long invoked.

But let’s also be honest about how we got here.

We cannot blame “gross NHS mismanagement” without admitting how many within the system have enabled inefficiency, protected legacy roles, resisted reform, or kept silent during self-serving union manoeuvres. If we want systemic change, integrity must begin at home. It’s easy to criticise politicians. Harder to clean our own house.

Yes, there’s a crisis—but it’s not just about workforce planning. It’s about professional accountability, cultural honesty, and the moral courage to confront hard truths—starting with ourselves.

09/05/2025

🇬🇧 The UK Must Look East for Its Healthcare Survival

While we’re busy infighting over titles, roles, and turf wars — Asia is building the future.

The UK’s healthcare system is spiralling:
NHS waiting lists hit 7.54 million in March 2025 — the highest on record.
Chronic disease prevalence is rising sharply, with 1 in 4 adults now diagnosed with multiple long-term conditions.
Five-year cancer survival for key conditions like pancreatic and lung cancer remain among the lowest in Western Europe.

We’re stuck in bureaucracy and ideology while China, South Korea, and Japan are deploying AI doctors, robotic systems, and scalable digital care to offset a demographic collapse.

Blocking it is not progress. It's surrender.

🚨 China Unveils World’s First AI Hospital — “Agent Hospital”


China’s Tsinghua University has launched Agent Hospital, the world’s first fully AI-powered hospital staffed by 14 AI doctors and 4 AI nurses. The agents simulate full clinical workflows — from diagnosis and prescriptions to recovery follow-up — at scale.

The hospital operates in a virtual world, but with real-world relevance:
✅ 93.06% accuracy on MedQA — outperforming many human doctors.
✅ Can “treat” 10,000 patients in days, compressing years of clinical learning time.
✅ No need for sensitive real-world data — agents train in digital sandbox simulations.

⚠️ The Demographic Time Bomb Driving All This
China’s fertility rate plummeted to 1.0 in 2023, with the population shrinking for the second consecutive year. Over 21% of the population is now over 60.

South Korea hit 0.72 fertility, and Japan’s elderly make up nearly a third of the population.
Faced with a doctor shortage and an aging society, Asia isn’t debating AI — it’s deploying it.

🔜 Public Pilot Launching in 2025
Tsinghua plans to roll out a public-facing pilot of Agent Hospital by late 2025. The aim: Improve access in rural areas.

📌 UK, Time to Wake Up
We can’t afford to be ideological when patients are suffering. The NHS needs to observe, adapt, and partner — or risk falling years behind the global curve.

References
NHS England: “Referral to Treatment Waiting Times Data, March 2025” – NHS England
Health Foundation (2024): “Rising burden of multimorbidity” – Health.org.uk
Cancer Research UK: “Survival statistics for UK cancers” – CRUK
Tsinghua AIR: https://air.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/info/1007/1872.htm
China Daily (May 2025): https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202505/06/WS68195e8fa310a04af22bd960.html
Rysys Technologies: https://rysysthtechnologies.com/insights/chinas-breakthrough-ai-agent-hospital
UN Population Division (2023): https://population.un.org/dataportal/home
The Economist (April 2024): “Asia’s Aging Crisis”
ReachMD: https://reachmd.com/programs/clinicians-roundtable/ai-powered-virtual-hospital-in-china-to-launch-public-pilot-in-2025/29857/

The "Agent Hospital," an AI-powered virtual healthcare platform developed by Tsinghua University researchers, is preparing for a public pilot launching in 2025. This initiative features autonomous AI doctors trained through dynamic simulations of real-world clinical workflows. Discover more about ho...

01/05/2025

OMG!!!!
The best representation I’ve seen to date 😍
Brilliant - Thank you Med.index

The nexus of MSK, neurology, rheumatology & internal medicine.

30/04/2025

Naproxen without a stomach protector can lead to ulcers that can bleed and cause death. Check your meds please.