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He stands up and walks around his desk, placing a sweaty hand on my lower back as he opens the office door to indicate it is time to go. “The Oracle represents the most sophisticated healthcare algorithm ever created. Trust Her.”

It seems to me the Writing the Future science fiction prize, and the beautiful, eerie stories, mess with our minds because they say ambiguous things about the gap between the present and the future. Is this gap vast, with futures yet untold unfolding in unpredictable directions? Or is this gap porous, and shrinking?

I was told an uplifting story the other day that made me reflect about the conversations we have. Or more accurately, the conversations we don’t have, and what this might mean for our health. It was about a lady, not originally from the UK. She was coming on her own, almost every other day, to her local GP in south London – invariably without an appointment. 

As the writer of 'Burnout', one of the six stories shortlisted for Writing the Future, I've been asked to describe my experience of writing for the competition, and the inspiration behind my story. “Write what you know,” beginner authors are often advised. Well, it so happens that I work in primary care in the UK, and I enjoy reading – and occasionally writing – science fiction.

Ben Dyson, the Executive Director of Strategy at NHS Improvement, writes on the challenges of healthcare strategy in the UK, particularly the transition from traditional strategy to a more agile and adaptable model.

A couple of years ago I spoke to healthcare professionals in the US about what makes for a joyous day at work as part of a project sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund, when I was working in America as a Harkness fellow.

I heard about Writing the Future through my friend Kate, who works in health. "You like writing," she said. "Why don’t you enter this?" A short story competition about healthcare in 2100? It was an intriguing topic: 83 years from now, what kind of world would our descendants inherit?

I know you’re in the middle of something – thanks for even stopping by – but could I borrow you for two quick thought experiments? Only be a minute.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." - Steve Jobs 

Having been part of the panel judging the splendid recent Writing the Future competition, I've been asked to pen a few words about the writer's job; specifically how the world 'out there' gets filtered through the writer's imagination so that it arrives 'down there' on the page.