The Kyran Bracken Variant

Explicit content warning

03/31/21 • 36 min

What does the former England rugby captain Kyran Bracken know about the NHS? Refreshingly little as it turns out, but he does have some painfully funny experiences of urgent care to share. They'll have you in stitches.
In a packed episode we also find out why leading doctors are accusing Covid-19 of xenophobia and why new variants of Public Health England threaten to overwhelm the NHS.
Plus we apologise to Matt Hancock for failing to recognise that speed trumps perfection and try out his irreversible roadmap.
Brought to you by the reliably silly presenting team of Dr Mike Smith, John Bennett and Julian Patterson, with expert help from Andy Cowper and proper doctor Pete Turton (he works in a hospital).
Oh, and if you're wondering why it's called The Placemat, we finally find out this time.

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Previous Episode

Loose Women, Emu and Joe Rafferty

We planned to pack this week's Placemat with hard news, insightful commentary and vital information about the NHS. Instead you'll have to settle for some moderately ill-informed banter and a few jingles.
Dr Mike Smith, John Bennett and Julian Patterson discuss Matt Hancock's Chinese room service bill and the almost equally impressive cost of the test and trace system. They also answer the question on everyone's minds: which member of the Loose Women team will replace Simon Stevens as NHS chief executive?
A rare moment of gravitas is provided by special guest Joe Rafferty, chief executive of the Mersey Care mental health trust, who talks about his work with the Zero Suicide Alliance.
We also get a quick masterclass from health policy expert Andy Cowper on what NHS England does and why.
Plus another few minutes in the company of arguably the NHS's favourite doctor Pete Turton and another enduring classic from our popular regular feature Virtue Signal of the Week.

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Next Episode

Seagulls, Gangsta Rap and Dr Mark Porter

This week's episode of the NHS's favourite podcast finds Sir Simon Stevens rooting through your bins. No the head of NHS England hasn't fallen on hard times, but he is keen to keep you out of hospital by checking you are doing everything you can to stay healthy.
Talking of rubbish, we also take the lid off integrated care systems: what are they and more importantly why are they? To help us explore this important topic we're joined once again by Andy Cowper.
And if that weren't enough, we talk to the charming and handsome Dr Mark Porter about the NHS, his work on TV and radio and why he has signed off Twitter for the last time.
Plus all your regular favourites including Virtue Signal of the Week and everyone's second favourite media doctor, Pete Turton.
This weeks show also features a musical treat designed to increase our appeal to younger audiences.
WARNING: May contain some bad accents, terrible acting and puerile humour.

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