Winners announced for 2020 Doctors for the NHS Essay Prize
The winners have recently been announced for the 2020 Doctors for the NHS Essay Prize, which has been run this year in collaboration with the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Founded in 1976, Doctors for the NHS (1) is a professional medical organisation whose sole purpose is to fight for the NHS and the public it serves. The annual essay prize is open to all doctors in training who were invited to submit an essay of up to 2,000 words with the title “If I was the Minister of Health…”
The three winners, who as part of the prize are offered the opportunity to publish their essays in JRSM, are:
1st prize of £500
Joseph Freer, who outlined a proposal for how a new, ideal Minister of Health could democratise healthcare, describing a fundamental restructuring of the institutions and systems that are currently undermining improvements in health outcomes.
2nd prize of £200
Eliot Hurn, who, writing with the current government in mind, wrote an essay inspired by Niccolo Macchievelli’s The Prince.
3rd prize of a year’s membership of the RSM
PD d’Arienzo, whose essay outlined how the willingness not to be an expert - what Zen practitioners call beginner’s mind - could transform healthcare for the better, serving local communities, improving patient outcomes, and making the NHS a better place to work.
JRSM Editor Dr Kamran Abbasi said: "I enjoyed reading the entries for this competition. It is important to hear the voices of young doctors at a time when their work life has undergone such dramatic change. The political dimensions of the response to COVID-19 are profound and the theme allowed the entrants tremendous scope in what to focus on. The result is a collection of fascinating and diverse essays that are highly relevant to everyone working in the health service. I'm delighted to be able to publish the best of these in JRSM."
The RSM has a number of prizes, awards and bursaries that are open to students, trainees and professionals. Find out more about applying for RSM prizes and awards.
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