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Dr Natasha Wiggins

@drnwiggins.bsky.social
342 followers 200 following 26 posts

Palliative Medicine doctor & general Nerd Alert. I love a walk, human connection and very cold champagne.

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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Everything you want to know about Palliative care funding by the intimitable @katherinesleeman.bsky.social . Essential knowledge when forming an opinion on the assisted dying bill. #assisteddying #palliativecare
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Prof Katherine Sleeman @katherinesleeman.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
On Friday, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will have its Second Reading in the House of Commons. Most MPs won’t have thought much about assisted dying since the last vote in June 2025.   🧵New evidence, published since June 2025, that MPs should know about
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Jared Rubenstein, MD @drjrubenstein.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
✨Really proud of this talk. Getting invited to speak at End Well this year was one of the highlights of my professional career so far. ✨I was honored to share my message about how we can better support and grow the field of palliative care. 🙏🏼I hope you’ll listen and share. youtu.be/MWw_H6BIwWc?...
youtu.be
#1 Thing Clinicians Can Do for Palliative Care | End Well
YouTube video by End Well
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Prof Mark Taubert @profmarktaubert.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Episode 2 of #BBC Inside Health programme, 3-parter with @ericaborgstrom.bsky.social @drdavidnicholl.bsky.social and @katherinesleeman.bsky.social
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Irene Tuffrey-Wijne @tuffrey-wijne.com · 27/03/2025
“I even got people dancing!” Amanda’s blog about speaking at last week’s conference @pccongress.bsky.social #pcc2025
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Beyond excited that @drjrubenstein.bsky.social has travelled to the #pcc2025 and enjoyed our conversation
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Jared Rubenstein, MD @drjrubenstein.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Such a treat to see @drnwiggins.bsky.social interview @doctoroxford.com about her work and fabulous writing at @pccongress.bsky.social
Dr rachel clarke and dr natasha wiggins sitting on stage
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Prof Mark Taubert @profmarktaubert.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Dear @theguardian.com Why have you culled 33 signatories from our letter in today's Observer? Mainly medics, responding to last week's full signatory letter on #AssistedDying? www.theguardian.com/theobserver/...
theguardian.com
Are our ‘lost boys’ really being failed?
While sexist attitudes do harm outcomes, the ‘reverse gender gap’ is being weaponised against women
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Jugdeep Dhesi @jkdhesi.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Older people make up the majority of those dying each year. @gerisoc.bsky.social concerned about the lack of representation from older people’s healthcare specialists and older people themselves on the witness list for the Assisted Dying Bill - have a look at our website for updates
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Brilliant piece reflecting on the role of palliative care and societal coersion by Janice Turner in the Times today #assisteddying
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Palliative Care Congress @pccongress.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Don't suffer from #PCC2025 FOMO Early Bird Closing 24 January at 5pm Get your tickets pccongress.org.uk/registration/ Full Programme available via the website Day 1 - pccongress.org.uk/day-1-progra... Day 2 - pccongress.org.uk/day-2-progra... #PalliativeCare #Event
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Sonia Sodha @sonia-sodha.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
The final episode of my Radio 4 series The Body Politic - on assisted dying - is at 11am this morning, and on BBC Sounds after. We step back to look at the case for assisted dying- and why there’s such strong opposition.
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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
useful thread on the assisted dying hearings today
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
"Data from the DWP reveals that 1 in 5 people given 6 months to live went on to live over 3 years.." Can we accept a reality where these people would miss 3 years with loved ones due to our inherent poor ability to prognosticate? #assisteddying
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Jacob Oller @jacoboller.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
a period of 11 months contains the releases of all these films: Dog Man Wolf Man Better Man Monkey Man Different Man Hit Man Working Man
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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Why Britain’s doctors are in revolt To save the NHS money, the General Medical Council has been pushing the use of physician associates in place of qualified doctors—and putting patients at risk. A must read from @doctoroxford.bsky.social www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Why Britain's doctors are in revolt
To save the NHS money, the General Medical Council has been pushing the use of physician associates in place of qualified doctors—and putting patients...
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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
With the shocking revelation the Health Secretary is using taxpayers money to pay the GMC’s legal costs, @anaesunited.bsky.social need our help more than ever to protect patient safety. You can support them here👇 www.crowdjustice.com/case/stop-mi...
crowdjustice.com
Stop misleading patients - Physician Associates cannot replace doctors
We are a group of anaesthetists (doctors trained in anaesthesia) that are unhappy with the way the medical establishment is selling patients and the profession short.
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
I really enjoyed speaking with the kind and thoughtful @markmardell.bsky.social who is doing a sterling job of raising the uncomfortable questions on a daily basis. @apmposts.bsky.social @katherinesleeman.bsky.social @doctoroxford.bsky.social
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
We have a new consultant post! Want to look forward to coming to work? Come work with the best team in town*; drop me an email to see how this could work for you www.nhsjobs.com/job/UK/Wilts... *as rated by me and @doctoroxford.bsky.social
nhsjobs.com
Job vacancy: Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Swindon | trac.jobs
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Are you afraid of what might be waiting for you at the end of your life, or the life of people you love? Read this. This is my daily reality as a palliative consultant. Far from the terrifying rhetoric of last week. Read this. And tell the people you love. www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024...
newstatesman.com
We need to talk about dying
The assisted dying debate has been filled with horror stories of miserable ends. But does this reflect the reality of ordinary death?
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
The stories of the ordinary dying doesn't win votes but is my day to day reality and it is important those coming to the end of their life know that it is likely to be theirs too. #ordinarydying
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Present Indicative nailed it
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
"It’s over to you, Streeting& Keir Starmer. What will you do now about those anguished, frail, pain-racked patients who sit and quake in death’s proximity as they are failed by the NHS, social care and society at large?" @doctoroxford.bsky.social not holding back www.theguardian.com/society/2024...
theguardian.com
Good palliative care can alleviate the pain of dying – this bill means Labour must fund it | Rachel Clarke
Making dying easier is not the solution when NHS, social and palliative care are simply not there for patients
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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Palliative Care Doctor, Dr Rachel Clarke, "There are thousands of people suffering unnecessary pain" "We may be in a peculiar position where we have a state funded dying service but we don't have a state funded palliative care service"
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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Palliative Care Doctor, Dr Rachel Clarke, "If we had robust palliative care, then many many fewer people might feel as though this is their only option" "Wes Streeting has said patients will be coerced to take their life due to a lack of care" "Wes Streeting,what are you now going to do about it"
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
@cloudylemonade.bsky.social HOLLY!!! HI!!! 👋🏼🤗
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Anne Finucane @annefinucane.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
*NEW* estimates of palliative care need in the UK: 2017-2021. bmcpalliatcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
bmcpalliatcare.biomedcentral.com
Estimates of population-level palliative care need in the UK: a descriptive analysis of mortality data before and during the COVID-19 pandemic - BMC Palliative Care
Background Existing estimates of palliative care need in the UK were produced before the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to produce updated, population-level estimates of palliative care need for each of...
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Daniel Hewitt @danielhewittitv.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Putting the final touches to our programme on the funding crisis in end of life care, which airs Thursday on ITV1. I am so grateful to those who opened up to us about their experiences and the hospices who let us in. Keeping Care Alive: Hospices in Crisis? 8:30pm Thursday, ITV1
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
The official Association of Palliative Medicine for UK and Ireland is here! Follow @apmposts.bsky.social for all the APM, end of life and palliative tea from UK & Ireland #palliative #EOL
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Jasmine 🌌🔭 @astrojaz.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
this is literally what it feels like to have astigmatism
A wider field view of Westerlund 1. A dense cluster of bright stars, each with six large and two small diffraction spikes, due to the telescope’s optics. They have a variety of sizes depending on their brightness and distance from us in the cluster, and different colours reflecting different types of star. Patches of billowing red gas can be seen in and around the cluster, lit up by the stars. Small stars in the cluster blend into a background of distant stars and galaxies on black.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 24/11/2024
From Sure Start to youth centres, cutting children’s services is a false economy | Torsten Bell
theguardian.com
From Sure Start to youth centres, cutting children’s services is a false economy | Torsten Bell
Research reveals that Tessa Jowell’s programme not only helped early years children but went on to reduce youth crime On 22 February 2019, I spoke at a conference in memory of a good friend, Tessa Jowell. The event was about her legacy, marking 20 years…
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Trisha Elliott @trishaelliott.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Like many others, I feel very strongly about this. @ilovepathology.bsky.social, chair of NCEPOD, expresses appropriate concerns about how we miss far too often the opportunities to discuss end of life care. Report by Matthew Limb in the @bmj.com. #EOLC #PalliativeCare #ChoosingWisely #MedSky
END-OF-LIFE CARE: Hospitals miss opportunities to discuss people's wishes, report finds
NHS hospitals are missing opportunities to record people's wishes for care at the end of life, according to the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD), which highlighted the importance of "normalising conversations" about death and dying. Its report found too few patients had access to early palliative care, which can improve patients' quality of life and ultimately make a "good death" more likely.
NCEPOD reviewed sample data on the quality of care provided to adults with a diagnosis of dementia, heart failure, lung cancer, or liver disease who died in hospital between 1 April 2022 and 30 September 2022 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It found that 72.5% of patients did not have their preferences for care at the end of their life recorded.
Suzy Lishman (below), NCEPOD chair, said, "Almost a third of people admitted to hospital as an emergency are in their last year of life, and most have recent hospital contact offering multiple opportunities to discuss wishes, prognosis, symptom control, and end-of-life care.
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Sarah Bowers @spbowers.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Very excited by the brilliant quality abstracts that have come in for PCC 2025!
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Vaccines save lives. Keep repeating the message. It’s the truth.
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Sethina Watson @sethina.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
#CivilitySavesLives
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Rana Awdish MD @ranaawdish.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Is sharing our writing a thing here? 😊 Proud of this piece because it represents the work of so many trying to make medicine and communication better for our patients. #MedSky www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/action/showP...
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Woohoo! We're hiring 🤓. Want to work in a team that values you as an individual? Want to flex the brain muscles that give you joy and mean you look forward to coming to work? Come live your best life with us #palliative #pallsky @doctoroxford.bsky.social www.nhsjobs.com/job/UK/Wilts...
nhsjobs.com
Job vacancy: Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Swindon | trac.jobs
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Andrew Khodabukus @andkho.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
🪧 Train in Palliative Medicine in the United Kingdom 📅 Open 14 Nov 2024 - 5 Dec 2024 ❔ Interviews 25 - 27 Mar 2025 👨‍⚕️ Start 6 Aug 2025 🌐 buff.ly/3Cun9Xj @rcphysicians.bsky.social @rcpsglasgow.bsky.social #choosepallmed #palliativecare buff.ly/3UXXPPL @pccongress.bsky.social
United Kingdom Palliative Medicine Higher Specialty Training
Applications Open
10am Thursday 14 November 2024
Close
4pm Thursday 5 December 2024
#choosepallmed
https://www.phstrecruitment.org.uk/specialties/palliative-medicine
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Dr Neil Pender BM MSc FRCP 🏳️‍🌈 @drneilpender.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Dear followers, If you can help... LIKE and REPOST. Many thanks! #PalliativeCare #HAPM #HPM #HAPC #Hospice
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Caitlin Moran @mscaitlinmoran.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Today, on "Bluesky is educational": the inside of a penguin's mouth. Seemingly designed as "a tube of pure horror."
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Uncomfortable and important article by Prof Mark Taubert around what an assisted dying death actually looks like. For many it is worse than the natural death the vast majority have now. These peaceful undramatic deaths have been lost in the polarised rhetoric. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...
spectator.co.uk
The uncomfortable truth about assisted dying
Throughout all the questions, there is a baseline assumption that assisted dying will likely mean a smoother and calmer death. But does it?
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Ed Finch @edfinch.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Homeschooling because your child could not access mainstream education? You have days left to have your say on how our education system needs to change. More details below. Reposts welcome - thank you. sendmatters.co.uk/2024/11/12/f...
sendmatters.co.uk
Families of children with SEND – it’s time to be heard
Too many families have to fight when their children have Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND). They have to battle a system that seems not to have been built with their children in mind.…
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Rhea Liang @liangrhea.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Absolutely this 👇. One of the best explanations about this describes how 'nice culture' can be as harmful as 'nasty culture'- and much harder to call out because it casts the dissenting person as 'not nice'. But 'nice culture' stifles cognitive diversity. www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...
kingsfund.org.uk
From Nasty To Nice And Back Again: Seven Tips For Encouraging Cognitive Diversity | The King's Fund
Susie Perks-Baker and Ben Fuchs explore the challenge facing both 'nasty' and 'nice' cultures: failing to work constructively with conflict.
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Dr Natasha Wiggins @drnwiggins.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
As a Dr going into neurology training not realising palliative medicine was a thing & feeling like my holistic way of doing things was 'too different', I read Introducing Palliative Care and the light was turned on. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/society/2024...
theguardian.com
Robert Twycross obituary
Doctor who transformed pain relief and emphasised the need for a holistic approach for patients in palliative care
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