BJGP Life – The home of general practice and family medicine

Latest

Doing it right, and doing it well

14 April 2026

For us, perfection is not just an unachievable goal, but a false one, and perfectionism can never, even under ideal conditions, deliver the validation it promises us. Ben Hoban tackles perfectionism.

Yonder: Talking to a GP about suicide, GP–minister networks, practice managers as partners, and Welsh as first language

Yonder: a diverse selection of primary care relevant research stories from beyond the mainstream biomedical literature

13 April 2026

Some Bright Nowhere by Ann Packer

Ann Packer’s novel vividly depicts the complex, uncertain world of terminal care at home.

11 April 2026

Deliberate care: Reflections on approach, attention, and ethical presence in healthcare

What I offer is an observation: the mindset and inner orientation we bring — in clinic, community, and home — quietly shapes every interaction.

10 April 2026

Opinion and Clinical

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Ambivalent care: when patients feel unheard and unsupported

As a clinician, do you find it challenging to treat patients with symptoms that are difficult to understand, explain or manage?

9 April 2026

Opinion

How we construct illness: premenstrual syndrome and the stories behind symptoms

"Taken together, these women remind us that illness is never simply a biological fact. It is a negotiated narrative, shaped by experience, expectation, and constraint. Medicalisation can legitimise suffering, but it can also divert attention from the conditions that produce it."

8 April 2026

Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

If AI can ‘reflect,’ what are we assessing?

...if AI can produce the reflection, what exactly are we assessing?

7 April 2026

Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

AI scribes, memory, and the future of general practice

...an inherent problem when delegating the recoding process to this technology is that it prevents us from remembering our consultations and patients properly. There are several risks associated with this.

6 April 2026

1

Opinion

When the work hurts twice: The double burden in palliative care

Emilie Crouchman describes the combined impact of being unable to act in accordance with one’s professional and moral commitments while simultaneously carrying the emotional and existential weight of working in constant proximity to death.

4 April 2026

Opinion

Barriers and boundaries

Boundaries in medical care are therefore not primarily a mechanism for creating distance between people, but for making safe the closeness that effective care requires - not just the line separating one entity from another, but also the point of contact between

3 April 2026

Clinical·Opinion·Research

Do you serve a farming community? Do you ‘make every contact count’?

Self-harm and suicide are commonplace within rural communities such as farming and other types of agricultural work. Tamsin Fisher and colleagues showcase a research-driven mental health initiative in primary care.

2 April 2026

Opinion

Small acts. Deep knowing

Presence is not a soft skill. It is the core technology of general practice. In a world of algorithms and assembly lines, our most powerful clinical instrument remains our capacity to know our patients as human beings.

1 April 2026

Opinion·Undergraduate

Who am I when I put the stethoscope on?

We are not passive witnesses in consultations, we are active partners. What happens in a consultation is not fixed but co-created, and I am more responsible for that than I had realised.

31 March 2026

Book Reviews

Book review

Some Bright Nowhere by Ann Packer

Ann Packer’s novel vividly depicts the complex, uncertain world of terminal care at home.

1 min read

Arts·Book review

The waiting room: poetry and publishings from over a decade in the NHS, by Giles Dawnay

This is a self published collection of writings by Giles Dawnay that comprises some haunting poetry and published writings in (among others) The Guardian, The BMJ and the BJGP, on themes that we ignore at our collective peril.

2 mins read

1

Book review·International

Wonderful and Broken: The Complex Reality Of Primary Care In the United States by Troyen A. Brennan

Troyen Brennan explores the complexities of the United States’ (US's) primary care with its multiple systems of funding and its absence of universal health care cover and finds that primary care is wonderful but broken...

3 mins read

Arts·Book review

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

In many respects, Kelson embodies the idealised GP of cultural consciousness: an easy-to-talk-to, principled eccentric... Set against the film’s graphic, meandering violence, Kelson’s permanence echoes reassuring familiarity.

1 min read

Book review·Opinion

Icarus Plummeting

Zigmond mercilessly describes the ways in which our healthcare systems have made us less able to listen to the patient’s experience, less able to see their experience in the context of their life, their family and their social circumstances.

2 mins read

Book review

Book review: How Animals Heal Us

"How Animals Heal Us is a deeply heartfelt work from an author with lived experience of both devastating mental ill health and the restorative power of animal friendship. It contains uplifting and joyful anecdotes of animal companionship and ministration. It is also, at times, a

2 mins read

Book review

Book review: Psychology’s Quiet Conservatism: How a Supposedly Woke Science Promotes Capitalism and Protects Privilege

"I can only recommend this wide-ranging and rich book to any doctor interested in psychology, as you may find (like I did) that you will learn a lot more about psychology (and our current social climate) than you could do from any psychology textbook ..."

2 mins read

Book review·Opinion

Give me HRT: a reflection on the BBC’s Riot Women

The BBC’s Riot Women shows us a snippet of the lives of five women navigating the menopause and forming a rock band.

2 mins read

Book review

The Leopard in my House, by Mark Steel

The shared human experience... makes it a compelling and worthwhile read... also for those affected directly by cancer or friends and relatives caring for them.

3 mins read

1

Book review

Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference by Rutger Bregman

Moral ambition does not mean trying to be perfect. This book is meant as a practical guide for anyone who wants to be more effective in making a difference.

3 mins read

1

International

International·Opinion

Not alone, but unseen: hypothermia in an ageing home

Accidental hypothermia is rarely dramatic. It does not announce itself with urgency or spectacle. Instead, it accumulates quietly through the night, until it finally becomes visible in the early hours, when someone realises that something is wrong.

3 mins read

Book review·International

Wonderful and Broken: The Complex Reality Of Primary Care In the United States by Troyen A. Brennan

Troyen Brennan explores the complexities of the United States’ (US's) primary care with its multiple systems of funding and its absence of universal health care cover and finds that primary care is wonderful but broken...

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·International·Opinion

Primary care in a destroyed health system: reflections on a deployment to Gaza

Each mission has taught me something different about medicine in low-resource settings, but Gaza has presented challenges unlike anything I've encountered before. The conflict in Gaza has resulted in the near-total collapse of the healthcare system.

4 mins read

International·Opinion

When normal tests end care too early

Medicine is remarkably effective at identifying disease. Yet when symptoms persist without a clear diagnosis, it often falters—not because knowledge is lacking, but because legitimacy quietly evaporates.

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·International·Opinion

A Gaza medical Student, a GP Surgery in Darlaston, and the quiet influence of general practice

As GPs, we often meet people at points of disruption - when plans collapse and the future suddenly feels unclear. We sit with that complexity daily: listening, and identifying what next steps might be possible.

3 mins read

Long Read

Ambivalent care: when patients feel unheard and unsupported

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

As a clinician, do you find it challenging to treat patients with symptoms that are difficult to understand, explain or manage?

11 mins read

Medical societies in the 19th Century: How they influenced general practice

BJGP Long Read·Stories

Many of these societies may be historical relics, but their contribution to the development of general practice in the nineteenth century should not be forgotten.

7 mins read

Undervalued and unsustainable: The economic reality of GP minor surgery services

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

When the price of a portion of fish and chips has tripled in 20 years but the tariff for a joint injection remains static, something has gone seriously wrong with how we value general practice.

5 mins read

23

We need to talk about dying

BJGP Long Read

"Taking dying and death out of the solely medical domain, becoming joint partners in caring for the dying patient in the broadest sense, facilitates personalised and holistic care, and creates opportunity for a more relational and compassionate interaction ..."

15 mins read

On becoming: Empathy at the deep end

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Empathy is not a luxury. It is the ground on which healing relationships are built — and the ground on which we remain whole.

3 mins read

1

Trainees and students

Who am I when I put the stethoscope on?

Opinion·Undergraduate

We are not passive witnesses in consultations, we are active partners. What happens in a consultation is not fixed but co-created, and I am more responsible for that than I had realised.

2 mins read

A note on educators’ notes: why GP training programmes in the UK needs clearer, fairer assessment governance

AiT·BJGP Long Read·Opinion

GP training programmes must balance two imperatives: protecting patients and supporting the development of hardworking, reflective clinicians. To achieve this, the establishment relies heavily on narrative assessment tools...

3 mins read

Enhancing qFIT bowel screening uptake in deprived areas

BJGP Long Read·Opinion·Undergraduate

This is what Andrea Williamson and colleagues have termed missingness: The systematic absence of certain groups from health data, services, and outcomes. Those who do not return their kits are not a random group — they are often the very patients carrying the highest burden

4 mins read

Are we judging GP registrars on their outfits?

AiT·BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Professionalism may not be a discrete domain on the mark scheme, yet it shapes how registrars are assessed, creating a standard that remains open to personal interpretation. And when that interpretation is shaped by assumptions about religion, culture, gender, or identity, attire can become an

3 mins read

1

Mutual mentorship: A hidden strength in general practice

AiT·BJGP Long Read·Opinion

We’ve come to believe that at any stage of training or career, every GP has the potential to be both mentor and mentee; it is a reciprocal relationship that fosters self-reflection, career development, and personal growth for all involved.

3 mins read

BJGP Interviews

BJGP Interviews Podcast

BJGP TV | Research

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BJGP conference highlights, 2026

Visualised podcast – BJGP Top 10

Urine testing for cervical screening

Trust in health professionals

BJGP Top 10 research 2025

Professor Martin Marshall at the BJGP Research Conference

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Trainees and students

BJGP Interviews

BJGP Interviews Podcast

BJGP TV | Research

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BJGP News and Editorial Comment