MEDICAL AND HEALTH JOURNALISM

“I’ve always been fascinated both by the ways bodies work - or don’t - and by the reasons why some people do not get the care they need. That’s why I became a journalist.”

— Rachel Pugh

Her scientific literacy has also enabled her to gain prestigious work with international companies.

Rachel’s detailed knowledge of the NHS comes from regular consultancy work where she set up a good practice publication and database, and launched the UHSM Academy (a medical education organisation), based at the University Hospital of South Manchester.

All this grew out of her science-based psychology studies at The University of Manchester. She turned down an offer to join a research team, to gain extensive experience in local newspapers, including the Oxford Mail and Times, on BBC radio and North West regional TV.  During 11 years at the Manchester Evening News, she was both health editor (having set up the newspaper’s first health pages) and arts editor. Rachel has won several awards both as a staffer and more recently as a freelance -  including two for specialist medical writing and one for science communication.

  • Articles and thought pieces

  • Writing and editing

  • Strategic overviews and communications advice

  • Plain English versions of technical documents

  • Technical report production

  • Brainstorming sessions

  • Conference coverage

  • Design of communication materials

  • Translation, interviewing and working in French

  • Staff mentoring

Rachel can help you with:  

What others say

  • “Rachel is a courageous and passionate advocate for health. Her writing is stylish, well informed clinically and politically, and she commands respect. It was a great pleasure hosting her at my surgery ahead of a piece on general practice.”

    Dame Clare Gerada MBE, President Royal College of General Practitioners

  • “Rachel is a powerhouse of ideas. Her ability to go beyond the obvious has led her to root out and write a string of important stories on often overlooked issues. She is a talented and sensitive writer.”

    Alison Benjamin, former Society Editor at The Guardian

  • “Rachel has reported on my humanitarian work since its very beginning. I have always been able to have absolute confidence when speaking to her that her coverage would be accurate, balanced, well informed, and fair.”

    Professor Tony Redmond, Professor Emeritus of International Emergency Medicine, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute

What I’m proud of

  • FGM - writing one of the first stories about Female Genital Mutilation, leading to changes in the law to make the practice illegal in the UK

  • Health deprivation - an article of mine in The Guardian is used to teach medical students on how social deprivation affects health

  • Lindow Man - telling the archaeologists where to look for the Iron Age body buried in the peat near Wilmslow, Cheshire

  • Awards - Medical Journalists’ Association (2), BT Press awards, British Guild of Editors, Jacobs Foundation Science Writing Fellowship