TAFKAPGDean SEScot

Bill Reid. Univ Edin professorial fellow/academic adviser. Formerly PG Dean. Geriatrician. Comments all mine etc

[Prof Katherine Sleeman @kesleeman]

New article by @JamillaHussain1, Rini Jones and me on implications of assisted dying legislation for ethnic minority groups

https://t.co/p94yE6c2iu

[Prof Katherine Sleeman @kesleeman]

We have written for @politicshome on lessons learned from failure of the Terminally Ill Adults (assisted dying) Bill.

We argue that good law will not be achieved by persisting with the TIA Bill model, or by reintroducing it as a Private Members’ Bill.

https://t.co/DluN2XGtjW

[scott murray @scottamurrayed]

This bill will not apply only to people actually expected to die in 6 months". Anyone with an advanced illness will qualify in law as they might die - like us all. This has been confirmed in the Lords. This bill is purposefully misleading and misinforming

[Francis @Francis_Sanday]

#MSPs need to read this before they vote to change our society and not for the good. It is their role to protect the whole of our society and not the few who mainly are from a lobby group who want death on demand @ScotParl

[Dr Jonny Blackwell @JonnyBlackwell]

Reason #2 for 188 Scottish healthcare professionals warning MSPs about Mr McArthur’s Assisted Dying Bill.

1 in 3 people in Oregon change their mind and choose to live.

This Bill leaves people to die alone. No one will even know about their choice.

Point 2 in our letter 👇

[Russell Findlay @RussellFindlay1]

Why I'm voting against the assisted dying bill:

[scott murray @scottamurrayed]

@Francis_Sanday @ScotParl Scottish GPs consider this bill unsafe and do not want assisted suicide to be part of their work. They have stated this very clearly but not being listened to

[NHS Research Scotland @NHSResearchScot]

The next round of the @NHS_Education and @CSO_Scotland's joint lectureship scheme is now open for applications.

Apply by Monday 26 January 🔗 https://t.co/CaL2hxkSWm

[Private Eye Magazine @PrivateEyeNews]

Following the controversy over the edited Trump speech, the BBC has been lambasted for its negative and biased portrayal of the leader of a prominent right-wing government…

An Evening with Private Eye 2025, out now on YouTube.

[Wellcome @wellcometrust]

Many research careers start with a PhD. Our new award will support healthcare professionals to take that step.

We’re funding a new round of doctoral programmes to train the next generation of clinically-active research leaders.

Applications are open now. Find out more ⤵️
https://t.co/Zc8JqodTnN

[NHS Research Scotland @NHSResearchScot]

The Chief Scientist Office has opened their Early Postdoctoral Fellowships for application, providing three years of salary and consumable support to early career health researchers to enable then to develop their careers.

Apply now 🔗 https://t.co/WATvDRL7fW

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

"My name's Raymond. I'm 73. I work the parking lot at St. Joseph's Hospital. Minimum wage, orange vest, a whistle I barely use. Most people don't even look at me. I'm just the old man waving cars into spaces.
But I see everything.

Like the black sedan that circled the lot every morning at 6 a.m. for three weeks. Young man driving, grandmother in the passenger seat. Chemotherapy, I figured. He'd drop her at the entrance, then spend 20 minutes hunting for parking, missing her appointments.

One morning, I stopped him. "What time tomorrow?"
"6:15," he said, confused.
"Space A-7 will be empty. I'll save it."
He blinked. "You... you can do that?"
"I can now," I said.

Next morning, I stood in A-7, holding my ground as cars circled angrily. When his sedan pulled up, I moved. He rolled down his window, speechless. "Why?"
"Because she needs you in there with her," I said. "Not out here stressing."
He cried. Right there in the parking lot.

Word spread quietly. A father with a sick baby asked if I could help. A woman visiting her dying husband. I started arriving at 5 a.m., notebook in hand, tracking who needed what. Saved spots became sacred. People stopped honking. They waited. Because they knew someone else was fighting something bigger than traffic.
But here's what changed everything, A businessman in a Mercedes screamed at me one morning. "I'm not sick! I need that spot for a meeting!"

"Then walk," I said calmly. "That space is for someone whose hands are shaking too hard to grip a steering wheel."

He sped off, furious. But a woman behind him got out of her car and hugged me. "My son has leukemia," she sobbed. "Thank you for seeing us."

The hospital tried to stop me. "Liability issues," they said. But then families started writing letters. Dozens. "Raymond made the worst days bearable." "He gave us one less thing to break over."

Last month, they made it official. "Reserved Parking for Families in Crisis." Ten spots, marked with blue signs. And they asked me to manage it.

But the best part? A man I'd helped two years ago, his mother survived, came back. He's a carpenter. Built a small wooden box, mounted it by the reserved spaces. Inside? Prayer cards, tissues, breath mints, and a note,

"Take what you need. You're not alone. -Raymond & Friends"
People leave things now. Granola bars. Phone chargers. Yesterday, someone left a hand-knitted blanket.
I'm 73. I direct traffic in a hospital parking lot. But I've learned this: Healing doesn't just happen in operating rooms. Sometimes it starts in a parking space. When someone says, "I see your crisis. Let me carry this one small piece."

So pay attention. At the grocery checkout, the coffee line, wherever you are. Someone's drowning in the little things while fighting the big ones.

Hold a door. Save a spot. Carry the weight no one else sees.
It's not glamorous. But it's everything."

Let this story reach more hearts....

Credit: Mary Nelson

[NHS Research Scotland @NHSResearchScot]

The next rounds of the NHS Research Scotland Fellowships are now open for applications, with a closing date of Tuesday 9 December. @CSO_Scotland

Read more about the schemes and apply 🔗 https://t.co/mzRmGvkTeM

[Jess Asato MP @Jess4Lowestoft]

It seems very odd to have a Committee which isn’t able to accept written evidence. The Bill has changed since it was first proposed and how can a Committee on a Bill of this magnitude come to a reasoned conclusion on just a few sessions of oral evidence? Feels like shenanigans.

[NHS Research Scotland @NHSResearchScot]

The next rounds of the NHS Research Scotland Fellowships are now open for applications, with a closing date of Tuesday 9 December. @CSO_Scotland

Read more about the schemes and apply 🔗 https://t.co/mzRmGvkTeM

[scott murray @scottamurrayed]

Why physician-assisted suicide has no place in the NHS https://t.co/od9mmtbR9D @ProfMarkTaubert @mariecurieuk Especially an NHS which does not adequately fund GPs, hospitals and hospices to provide early palliative care to 560,000 people who die every year in the UK

[NHS Research Scotland @NHSResearchScot]

Applications are now open for the next intake of Chief Scientist Office (CSO) of the Scottish Government Clinical Academic Fellowships.

Find out more about the scheme, and apply by midday on Wednesday 19 November 🔗 https://t.co/xcMoDQQbO6

[scott murray @scottamurrayed]

#assisteddying Illness trajectories explain why a prognosis of 6 months is flawed. Most people need terminal care 2 to 5 years. They cannot be “reasonably expected to die within 6 months”. They are likely to be alive 18 months later. Evidence ignored https://t.co/4W6RkbHtNI

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

1.5 million people observed.
29 possible side effects.
0 increased risk.

That’s the latest from Denmark 🇩🇰.

No conspiracy.
No chaos.
Just data.

mRNA vaccines are safe.

https://t.co/m3fEAohoU3

[Professor Chris Whitty @CMO_England]

Sir Kenneth Calman was an outstanding Chief Medical Officer for Scotland and then England.

He was a great leader and reformer in public health and academia as well as undertaking wider public service.

He was also a lovely man, courteous to all.

https://t.co/ew1Xz4PrwL