Savvy group

When it comes to cleaning, the kitchen is one of the worst rooms to tackle – perhaps second only to the bathroom.

I’m willing to bet even ardent cleaning fans hesitate when it comes to their microwave, oven, and hobs. After all, these are the areas most likely to accumulate stubborn stains.

I, for one, never enjoy scrubbing surfaces, even when they’ve been cleaned recently and shouldn’t be much of a chore.

It’s nevertheless important to wipe away any built-up food or spillages, whether or not you love pulling on rubber gloves.

So when people share tips and tricks to make these jobs easier, I’m all ears, and you can imagine my delight when influencer Mrs Hinch skyrocketed to fame.

Not only does she regularly share savvy recommendations, but the expert inspired fellow cleaning fans to follow suit. There’s even a Facebook group devoted to the topic. Aptly named Mrs Hinch Cleaning Tips, it’s perfect for people like me who want to share in the wisdom of those magical beings who enjoy cleaning.

While I’ll admit I like having a neat and tidy kitchen, I’m less keen on the tidying up itself. So when I read about the below lemon hack, which has been praised as a great, simple way to clean your microwave, I was eager to give it a go.

The hack

Filled with citric acid and antibacterial properties, lemons are often touted as a form of ‘natural bleach’. So the idea is simple. Use a lemon to help clean away all those grubby bits which end up in your microwave – but shouldn’t go anywhere near your food.

If you’re a fan of natural remedies, then you’re in luck too, as you’d be hard-pressed to find a more natural cleaning solution. As to how you implement the tip, Mrs Hinch fans have varying preferences, though the overarching idea is the same regardless of who you ask.

For instance, one Facebook post dedicated to microwave cleaning tips revealed three variations of the lemon hack. One person advised: “Put half a lemon inside on the glass and turn for 30 seconds. Then wipe with kitchen towel.”

A second wrote: “Heat up water with lemon juice and let the steam start the process then wipe clean. Easy.” Meanwhile, another said: “It’s own steam works best. Dish with lemon sliced in it, microwave on high for five minutes and wipe everything away. Wash the glass turntable in hot soapy water then dry. Job done.”

So I decided to combine the recommendations – a method that has proved popular elsewhere on the internet.

I squeezed lemon juice into a bowl of water, added in the remaining lemon for good measure, and set my microwave going for five minutes. Then, once I left the bowl to cool, I returned in the hope the steam would help me to tackle any stubborn stains.

As I watched the lemon concoction whirl round in the appliance, I was willing it to work. As someone who doesn’t enjoy a weekend spent on a deep clean, I scrub my microwave after each use. But keen to put this hack through its paces, I deliberately heated up my leftovers in a bowl that splashed food onto the microwave walls, to see how it fared there.

Luckily, it didn’t matter that I’d made a lot of mess though, as when I returned to clean it up later in the evening the lemon hack delivered brilliant results.

The results

I don’t have much to say here, as I think it is clear to see how well this hack works. As you can see from the photos and video, every stain wiped away after I used a wet cloth. There were a few marks I had to wipe a couple of times, but it didn’t take too much work to leave my microwave sparkling once more thanks to the lemon.

The verdict

The method is very easy to execute, and so long as you’ve got the patience to wait for five minutes it’s relatively fast too. As I said, I prefer to clean as I go – washing up in small bursts – rather than wait until the end of the week. But it is simple enough to set the timer going and then come back once you’ve finished another chore if you’re keen to use it.

This hack is pretty cheap too. You can purchase a single lemon from Sainsbury’s for 30p, or less if you opt for a multipack, and since I used a lemon that was going off in the back of my fridge, it helped to reduce waste as well.

However, I don’t think it would save money in the long run if used instead of a couple of spritzes of microwave cleaner.

The big plus is that it is a natural remedy and a good one at that, so it is perfect for anyone who is looking to avoid store-bought chemicals.

While I didn’t think it was any better than my usual method, it was no worse. As such, it’s not something I’d go out of my way to try again, but I’d certainly give it another go when I’ve got an old lemon to spare, and it’s great if you’re looking for a natural remedy.

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Hair blockages in bathroom drains can be a real pain, as anyone with long tresses will know all too well. Luckily, there are ways to “dissolve” hair blockages in no time at all, and you won’t need to spend a fortune on pricey products. A number of Mrs Hinch devotees have now offered their advice on the matter, and one tip, in particular, has been described as the “holy grail”.

Taking to the Mrs Hinch Cleaning Tips Facebook page, one cleaning fan asked fellow group members for their thoughts as to how she could banish any frustrating clumps of hair from her plug-hole, and ended up receiving a variety of helpful suggestions.

One tip that appears to be particularly popular is said to take no more than 15 minutes to try for yourself, and you may well have the ingredient knocking about in your bathroom cabinet already.

One savvy cleaning enthusiast wrote: “Cheap hair removal cream. Mix it with hot water in a jug and simply pour it down there and leave for 15 minutes before rinsing.”

Another agreed: “Yes, hair removal cream really works, the absolute holy grail.”

A third said: “Put loads of hair removal cream down the drain, it will dissolve all traces of hair.”

According to Veet, a household name when it comes to hair removal products, the alkaline chemicals found in hair removal creams break down the protein structure of a person’s hair, dissolving it in such a way that the follicles can easily be wiped away post-treatment.

Therefore, this product works like a charm when it comes to unblocking your clogged plughole, making any bunged-up hair much easier to budge.

If you want to give this hack a go for yourself, then you can pick up a nifty tube of 100 ml Nair Hair Remover Sensitive Cream from Sainsbury’s for just £1.50.

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After 18 years as CEO in Kaiser Permanente , I set my sights on improving the heatlh of the nation, hoping to find a way to achieve the same quality, technology and affordability our medical group delivered to 5 million patients on both coasts.

That quest launched the Fixing Healthcare podcast in 2018, and it inspired interviews with dozens of leaders, thinkers and doers, both in and around medicine. These experts shared innovative ideas and proven solutions for achieving (a) superior quality, (b) improved patient access, (c) lower overall costs, and (d) greater patient and clinician satisfaction.

This month, after 150 combined episodes , three questions emerged:

• Which of the hundreds of ideas presented remain most promising?
• Why, after five years and so many excellent solutions, has our nation experienced such limited improvements in healthcare?
• And finally, how will these great ideas become reality?

To answer the first question, I offer 15 of the best Fixing Healthcare recommendations so far. Some quotes have been modified for clarity with links to all original episodes (and transcripts) included.

Fixing the business of medicine

1. Malcolm Gladwell , journalist and five-time bestselling author: “In other professions, when people break rules and bring greater economic efficiency or value, we reward them. In medicine, we need to demonstrate a consistent pattern of rewarding the person who does things better.”

2. Richard Pollack , CEO of the American Hospital Association (AHA): “I hope in 10 years we have more integrated delivery systems providing care, not bouncing people around from one unconnected facility to the next. I would hope that we’re in a position where there’s a real focus on ensuring that people get care in a very convenient way.”

Eliminating burnout

3. Zubin Damania , aka ZDoggMD, hospitalist and healthcare satirist: “In the culture of medicine, specialists view primary care as the weak medical students, the people who couldn’t get the board scores or rotation honors to become a specialist. Because why would you do primary care? It’s miserable. You don’t get paid enough. It’s drudgery. We must change these perceptions.”

4. Devi Shetty , India’s leading heart surgeon and founder of Narayana Health: “When you strive to work for a purpose, which is not about profiting yourself, the purpose of our action is to help society, mankind on a large scale. When that happens, cosmic forces ensure that all the required components come in place and your dream becomes a reality.”

5. Jonathan Fisher , cardiologist and clinician advocate: “The problem we’re facing in healthcare is that clinicians are all siloed. We may be siloed in our own institution thinking that we’re doing it best. We may be siloed in our own specialty thinking that we’re better than others. All of these divides need to be bridged. We need to begin the bridging.”

Making medicine equitable

6. Jen Gunter , women’s health advocate and “the internet’s OB-GYN”: “Women are not listened to by doctors in the way that men are. They have a harder time navigating the system because of that. Many times, they’re told their pain isn’t that serious or their bleeding isn’t that heavy. We must do better at teaching women’s health in medicine.”

7. Amanda Calhoun , activist, researcher and anti-racism educator: “A 2015 survey showed that white residents and medical students still thought Black people feel less pain, which is wild to me because Black is a race. It’s not biological. This is actually an historical belief that persists. One of the biggest things we can do as the medical system is work on rebuilding trust with the Black community.”

Addressing social determinants of health

8. Don Berwick , former CMS administrator and head of 100,000 Lives campaign: “We know where the money should go if we really want to be a healthy nation: early childhood development, workplaces that thrive, support to the lonely, to elders, to community infrastructures like food security and transportation security and housing security, to anti-racism and criminal-justice reform. But we starve the infrastructures that could produce health to support the massive architecture of intervention.”

9. David T. Feinberg , chairman of Oracle Health: “Twenty percent of whether we live or die, whether we have life in our years and years in our life, is based on going to good doctors and good hospitals. We should put the majority of effort on the stuff that really impacts your health: your genetic code, your zip code, your social environment, your access to clean food, your access to transportation, how much loneliness you have or don’t have.”

Empowering patients

10. Elisabeth Rosenthal , physician, author and editor-in-chief of KHN : “To patients, I say write about your surprise medical bills. Write to a journalist, write to your local newspaper. Hospitals today are very sensitive about their reputations and they do not want to be shamed by some of these charges.”

11. Gordon Chen , ChenMed CMO: “If you think about what leadership really is, it’s influence. Nothing more, nothing less. And the only way to achieve better health in patients is to get them to change their behaviors in a positive way. That behavior change takes influence. It requires primary care physicians to build relationship and earn trust with patients. That is how both doctors and patients can drive better health outcomes.”

Utilizing technology

12. Vinod Khosla , entrepreneur, investor, technologist: “The most expensive part of the U.S. healthcare system is expertise, and expertise can relatively be tamed with technology and AI. We can capture some of that expertise, so each oncologist can do 10 times more patient care than they would on their own without that help.”

13. Rod Rohrich , influential plastic surgeon and social media proponent: “Doctors, use social media to empower your audience, to educate them, and not to overwhelm them. If you approach social media by educating patients about their own health, how they can be better, how can they do things better, how they can find doctors better, that’s a good thing.”

Rethinking medical education

14. Marty Makary , surgeon and public policy researcher: “I would get rid of all the useless sh*t we teach our medical students and residents and fellows. In the 16 years of education that I went through, I learned stuff that has nothing to do with patient care, stuff that nobody needs to memorize.”

15. Eric Topol , cardiologist, scientist and AI expert: “It’s pretty embarrassing. If you go across 150 medical schools, not one has AI as a core curriculum. Patients will get well versed in AI. It’s important that physicians stay ahead, as well.”

Great ideas, but little progress

Since 2018, our nation has spent $20 trillion on medical care, navigated the largest global pandemic in a century and developed an effective mRNA vaccine, nearly from scratch. And yet, despite all this spending and scientific innovation, American medicine has lost ground.

American life expectancy has dropped while maternal mortality rates have worsened. Clinician burnout has accelerated amid a growing shortage of primary care and emergency medicine physicians. And compared to 12 of its wealthiest global peers, the United States spends nearly twice as much per person on medical care, but ranks last in clinical outcomes .

Guests on Fixing Healthcare generally agree on the causes of stagnating national progress. Healthcare system giants, including those in the drug, insurance and hospital industries, find it easier to drive up prices than to prevent disease or make care-delivery more efficient. Over the past decade, they’ve formed a conglomerate of monopolies that prosper from the existing rules, leaving them little incentive to innovate on behalf of patients. And in this era of deep partisan divide, meaningful healthcare reforms have not (and won’t) come from Congress.

Then who will lead the way?

Industry change never happens because it should. It happens when demand and opportunity collide, creating space for new entrants and outsiders to push past the established incumbents. In healthcare, I see two possibilities:

1. Providers will rally and reform healthcare

Doctors and hospitals are struggling. They’re struggling with declining morale and decreasing revenue. Clinicians are exiting the profession and hospitals are shuttering their doors. As the pain intensifies, medical group leaders may be the ones who decide to begin the process of change.

The first step would be to demand payment reform. Today’s reimbursement model, fee-for-service, pays doctors and hospitals based on the quantity of care they provide—not the quality of care. This methodology pushes physicians to see more patients, spend less time with them, and perform ever-more administrative (billing) tasks. Physicians liken it to being in a hamster wheel: running faster and faster just to stay in place.

Instead, providers of care could be paid by insurers, the government and self-funded businesses directly, through a model called “ capitation .” With capitation, groups of providers receive a fixed amount of money per year. That sum depends on the number of enrollees they care for and the amount of care those individuals are expected to need based on their age and underlying diseases.

This model puts most of the financial risk on providers, encouraging them to deliver high-quality, effective medical care. With capitation, doctors and hospitals have strong financial incentives to prevent illnesses through timely and recommended preventive screenings and a focus on lifestyle-medicine (which includes diet, exercise and stress reduction). They’re rewarded for managing patients’ health and helping them avoid costly complications from chronic diseases, such as heart attacks, strokes and cancer.

Capitation encourages doctors from all specialties to collaborate and work together on behalf of patients, thus reducing the isolation physicians experience while ensuring fewer patients fall through the cracks of our dysfunctional healthcare system. The payment methodology aligns the needs of patients with the interests of providers, which has the power to restore the sense of mission and purpose medicine has lost.

Capitation at the delivery-system level eliminates the need for prior authorization from insurers (a key cause of clinician burnout) and elevates the esteem accorded to primary care doctors (who focus on disease prevention and care coordination). And because the financial benefits are tied to better health outcomes, the capitated model rewards clinicians who eliminate racial and gender disparities in medical care and organizations that take steps to address the social determinants of health.

2. Major retailers will take over

If clinicians don’t lead the way, corporate behemoths like Amazon, CVS and Walmart will disrupt the healthcare system as we know it. These retailers are acquiring the insurance, pharmacy and direct-patient-care pieces needed to squeeze out the incumbents and take over American healthcare.

Each is investing in new ways to empower patients, provide in-home care and radically improve access to both in-person and virtual medicine. Once generative AI solutions like ChatGPT gain enough computing power and users, tech-savvy retailers will apply this tool to monitor patients, enable healthier lifestyles and improve the quality of medical care compared to today.

When Fixing Healthcare debuted five years ago, none of the show’s guests could have foreseen a pandemic that left more than a million dead. But, had our nation embraced their ideas from the outset, many of those lives would have been saved. The pandemic rocked an already unstable and underperforming healthcare system. Our nation’s failure to prevent and control chronic disease resulted in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths from Covid-19. Outdated information technology systems, medical errors and disparities in care caused hundreds of thousands more. As a nation, we could have done much better.

With the cracks in the system widening and the foundation eroding, disruption in healthcare is inevitable. What remains to be seen is whether it will come from inside or outside the U.S. healthcare system.