Combating the destructive biomedicalisation of clinical language

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Source: BMJ

Original: http://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj.s144.short?rss=1...

Published: 2026-03-10T03:16:08-07:00

The article criticizes Wes Streeting's July 2025 10-year plan for the NHS in England, Fit for the Future, as alienating bureaucratic and technocratic language. In the report, the word "genome" appears 17 times, "genomics" 51 times, "digital" 2 times and "AI" 17 times. Conversely, "continuity" is mentioned 4 times, "suffering" 7 times, "comfort" 1 time, "kindness" 0 times and "solidarity" 2 times. The rhetoric of risk and prevention prevails over the language of disease, fear and hope. Despite the evidence of Vincent Felitti's pyramid of adverse childhood experiences, "poverty" is mentioned 9 times and "violence" 2 times. The apotheosis of technocratic language is the proposal for genetic sequencing of all newborns in England. Trevor Sheldon and John Wright in The BMJ responded.