Reports from North Korea have suggested a scarcity of data on healthcare provision but Claudia hears from Professor Hazel Smith who has researched North Korea for over thirty years that there is good information about health services.

And do doctors have a professional duty to be kind? The General Medical Council in the UK are consulting on whether to require doctors to ‘treat patients with kindness’ and some have not taken kindly to the idea. Louella Vaughan, a hospital consultant in acute medicine and family doctor Ann Robinson debate the issues.

Plus Claudia’s studio guest today is Graham Easton, Professor of Clinical Communication skills at Queen Mary, University of London.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond

(Picture: Pedestrians walk past cherry blossom trees near the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang in April 2022. Photo credit: Kim Won Jin/AFP/Getty Images.)