It is with great sadness that I pass on the news that John Crippen aka NHS Blog Doctor, has passed away.
John made his last post in mid October. He did not post for a while and we wondered what had happened. He had already taken a break from blogging and we thought that maybe he had simply burnt out. The dreadful news came yesterday in a post put on the blog by his fellow practitioner that he had died in a traffic accident. By this time there were 128 comments on his blog asking where he was; a mark of how revered he was amongst medical bloggers.
John's blog was funny,vitriolic,bilious and insightful by turns. Above all it was fearless and it made a difference. He was the first to report on the loopholes in the MMC scandal; he wrote touching posts about mental health and he raged against the destruction of his profession which he was passionate about. He wrote the kind of posts that got thundering denunciations and standing ovations at the same time. The blogging world will be very much poorer without him. The rest of us have a class act to follow.
John, I hope where you are there are no PFI hospitals, crap IT systems, joke turds undusted and no Patricia Hewitt. We will miss you dreadfully. Put in a word with the Big Man for those of us who are still carrying on the fight. And enjoy your rest - you've had your share of hell already. RIP.
