Nicola Sturgeon for BBC Sounds
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One doctor dies by suicide every three weeks, according to figures from the British Medical Association.
In 2021, Dr Lalith Wijedoru left his role as consultant paediatrician in emergency medicine, to focus on supporting workforce health and wellbeing, including those working in healthcare.
Given rare access to a wellbeing and recovery retreat, we hear emotional testimonies from the four groups of doctors at greatest risk of suicide - General Practitioners, anaesthetists, surgeons and psychiatrists.
Their stories - of workplace bullying, isolation, fatigue and fear of patient complaints - suggest a system in which doctors are made to feel like machines, rather than human beings. The concept of 'moral injury' is also a factor - where a doctor is unable to provide the care they wish to give to their patient, due to lack of resources or system breakdown.
These stories take us to the heart of issues being faced by many or most NHS professionals - and by the ‘system’ more generally.
Presenter: Dr Lalith Wijedoru
Producer: Amanda Hargreaves
Sound design: Joel Cox
Location recordings: Jon Calver
Executive producer: Dave Howard
A Bespoken Media Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
Click here to listen.
This BBC Radio 4 documentary recalls how the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak affected a Herefordshire farming community: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000y6kf
In 1983, Maini Schildt competed in the first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden. Maini was a teenager when, as part of the Finnish women's national team, she reached the final against the USA.
Ultimate Frisbee was developed in the late 1960s in the United States before spreading to Canada and beyond. Maini Schildt tells Maddy Savage how it felt to compete at the tournament, the first of its kind in the history of the sport.
Produced by Carys Wall
Presented by Maddy Savage
Exec Produced by Dave Howard.
Click here to listen.
(Photo: The Finnish and American Ultimate Frisbee teams after the 1983 Ultimate Frisbee World Championship. Credit: Maini Schildt)
A farmer, a cheesemaker, a philosopher and a scientist take us on a guided tour through a cow.
Told in five acts, this programme weaves together the voices of our four guides - artist-philosopher Samar Nasrullah Khan, cheesemaker Peter Dixon, farmer Nikki Yoxall and Professor of Animal Science and Microbiology Sharon Huws.
They take us on a journey from deep in the soil, through a plant, into a cow’s mouth, through her four stomach compartments – home to vast civilisations of bacteria, protozoa and fungi – and, of course, out the other end.
Part documentary, part creative interpretation, the programme uses field recordings to immerse us in the multi-species communities we encounter along the way.
Click here to listen.