13 July

Hospitals are maybe the most damaging invention ever for our health, and it's not the fault of the amazing people who work there. We've let ourselves think of health as the functioning of different bits of us, overseen by vastly overpaid specialists in those bits, in hyper-sterile environments that encourage individual micro-organisms to become impossible to control. The patient has little to no agency in the whole sorry affair. And that's our fault, we delegate responsibility for our own health to other people. We don't see 'health' as about rich environments in our everyday lives, it's not just about our body. Most diseases we go to hospital for can ultimately be traced back to the breaking down of everyday life in some way. It takes real bravery to sometimes walk away from the 'health system' and look after yourself. It can save your life.