DR MAX PEMBERTON: Dear NHS colleagues, have the jab or lose your job!

A friend of mine is a cleaner at the hospital where I work. He has one of the most physically demanding jobs in the NHS: keeping the wards scrubbed and free from lurking bugs is a never-ending task and, frequently, a thankless one. I have never heard him complain. But fear of Covid-19, he told … Read more

DR MAX PEMBERTON: I can’t be the only one who’s dreading socialising 

Hurrah! The end is in sight. We now have a roadmap out of lockdown and of course I, along with everyone else, am sighing with relief. Summer might just be saved. The old normal — or at least a version of it — is on the horizon. But after all the celebration and jubilation at … Read more

DR MAX PEMBERTON: Scandal of ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ orders being imposed on elderly patients

Nine years ago my grandmother passed away at the age of 85. A long time before, she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and when it returned ten years later, her body soon became riddled with it. It was, of course, a distressing diagnosis but she was greatly helped by the honest and sympathetic discussions … Read more

DR MAX PEMBERTON: Having an op put off is devastating, as my dear old gran found the hard way

My gran was tough as old boots. She was one of 14 and brought up in grinding poverty. She was never one to complain. Proud of her Yorkshire roots, she had a proper stiff upper-lip. Her motto in life was you just get on with it. Despite having had a very hard life, she never … Read more

Dr MAX PEMBERTON argues that banning visits to care homes harms vulnerable residents

The heartbreaking image that appeared on the front page of yesterday’s Daily Mail proved beyond doubt that Britain’s shameful treatment of its care home residents needs to end. Showing a loving wife having to kneel in the street to see her husband’s face through a metal railing, it was yet more disturbing proof that the … Read more

It’s better for your children not to have a perfect parent: NHS psychiatrist Max Pemberton

My mum was not always the perfect parent when I was growing up. Times like when I fell down the manhole in the front garden and knocked myself out while she chatted to our neighbour. Or the time when I was eight and I was left waiting for three hours outside an empty church hall … Read more

My six steps to keep smiling in the face of a second wave: Max Pemberton

I am usually pretty upbeat and positive — a glass-half-full person. But even I was knocked back by the Government’s new restrictions and the prospect of another full lockdown. Just as we started meeting friends and venturing back into the office, boom! We seem to be careering back to square one. It’s so disheartening, I … Read more

Dr MAX PEMBERTON gives his devastating verdict on yet another Covid-19 farce 

When coronavirus first struck Britain, Boris Johnson assured the public that ‘our country remains extremely well prepared’ to cope. Among our national assets, he boasted, was a ‘fantastic testing system’. Even when the virus was at its peak in May, the Prime Minister was still in hyperbolic mode as he promised that the testing regime … Read more