2020 – BJGP Life

The Longest March: Reflections during the early pandemic

2020 has been a grim year for patients and doctors alike. As we approach 2021, weary but hoping now to put our efforts into a mass vaccination program, John Travers, a GP registrar in Dublin, gives us his personal reflection on the

31 December 2020

8 mins read

4

Opinion

Editorial comment: Looking back, looking forward

2020 - what a year! I will be glad to be rid of it. Over the next few days BJGP Life will be looking forwards, not just to a better 2021 but also to a better world.

31 December 2020

1 min read

Bright Ideas and Innovation

How to help patients transition to a healthy and sustainable plant-based diet

Helping patients transition to a plant-based diet may not only prevent an estimated 11 million annual deaths, but largely decrease the damage to the environment caused by meat and dairy farming. Here, Shireen Kassam and colleagues provide a list of advice on

30 December 2020

3 mins read

16

Opinion

The MRCGP Recorded Consultation Assessment: Time to drop 10 minutes as standard?

Why do we continue to examine GP trainees at 10 minutes when the RCGP itself has called for longer GP consultations? Greg Irving and colleagues question the status quo.

29 December 2020

3 mins read

Book review

Book review: Island Dreams

Gavin Francis ia a GP and the best selling author of "Adventures in Human Being". Fiona Baskett reviews his latest book - just what we need to escape from the grim world of 2020.

28 December 2020

1 min read

Book review

Book Review: Sick Enough. A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating disorders.

On Boxing Day Serena Strickland reviews a book about the management of eating disorders.

26 December 2020

1 min read

Arts

A Christmas reflection

This Christmas let us join Professor Deborah Swinglehurst and her husband, Nicholas Edwards, as they present a Schubert lied that they have arranged for guitar and voice.

25 December 2020

1 min read

2

Opinion

We wish you a merry Christmas!

The BJGP gets in the mood for Christmas! We wish for a happy and peaceful Christmas to all our readers.

25 December 2020

3 mins read

Opinion

Hobbies, work and stress

Jonathan Wells has had a busy and stressful year. He tells us how thinking differently about his time off has helped him to manage the stress of work.

24 December 2020

2 mins read

Opinion

It’s a wonderful GP Life: Part 2

It’s Christmas Eve and a disheartened Dr Scrooge has been considering resignation. But might his guardian angel, Clarence, be able to change his mind?

24 December 2020

4 mins read

1

BJGP Long Read

The magic of medicine – The Inner Consultation revisited

We always knew that there was something a little bit magical about Roger Neighbour. Natasha Houghton and her colleagues explain all.

23 December 2020

8 mins read

Opinion

It’s a wonderful GP Life: Part 1

It's Christmas eve, and a dispirited Dr Scrooge is thinking of packing it all in. But might an unexpected visit change his perspective?

23 December 2020

3 mins read

2

Bright Ideas and Innovation·Coronavirus

68-year-old GP worried about COVID-19 takes up smoking

Smoke bombs in cars, Channel 4 film crews, and depositing rocks in car parks — this is the bizarre story of James Douglas's research into the development of PPE.

22 December 2020

3 mins read

Videos

Media depictions of remote consulting in COVID-19

Prof Trish Greenhalgh and Gilly Mroz discuss findings from their study looking at how the media have portrayed remote consulting in different phases of the pandemic.

22 December 2020

1 min read

Opinion

A singular Christmas case

Nicholas Surridge brings us a case report about a remarkable case of vinyl-assisted Christmas psychotherapy.

22 December 2020

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read

Staying afloat: Swimming not Sinking. Can spending time in the greenhouse help get us through the clinical day?

Can pottering in the greenhouse mitigate against the toxic impact of work related stress upon our brains? Jane Roberts examines the evidence.

21 December 2020

9 mins read

Opinion

Zero Quark Thirty; Or how the RCGP saved the world in time for Christmas.

BJGP Life is now able to reveal how the RCGP foiled a ghastly plot and saved the world in time for Christmas.

21 December 2020

4 mins read

1

Opinion

It was the week before Christmas….

David Misselbrook previews a bumper week for BJGP readers.

20 December 2020

2 mins read

Book review

Book review: Beneath the White Coat – Doctors, their minds and mental health. Clare Gerada

As doctors we know we are invincible and immortal, and if we're not we'd better hide it. John Spicer reviews Clare Gerada's important new book which looks underneath the white coat to examine what happens to human beings who happen to be

19 December 2020

2 mins read

BJGP Long Read

Salting the Earth

2020 has been a distressing year for UK doctors for many reasons. John Frey reminds us that it's no better across the pond.

18 December 2020

4 mins read

Opinion

Depreciating Assets? The Female Experience of Health in the UK

Is the NHS a service that understands the female health burden and attempts to alleviate it? Judith Dawson investigates the evidence.

17 December 2020

3 mins read

Bright Ideas and Innovation

Jugaad: a recipe for coping with uncertainty in times of crisis

Finding all the problems of 2020 getting you down? David Jeffrey teaches us how to cope, using "Jugaad".

16 December 2020

2 mins read

Coronavirus

THE IMPORTANCE OF GAINING THE PATIENT PERSPECTIVE ON THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND HOW BEST TO RESPOND TO IT

A recent patient survey exploring concerns relating to COVID-19 by Helen Burn and colleagues provides some illuminating findings, with 27% of responders stating that they would not accept a vaccination for COVID-19, and one in two responders experiencing mental and physical health

15 December 2020

3 mins read

Podcast·Videos

Episode 014: Remote consulting and the media during COVID-19

Professor Trish Greenhalgh and Dr Gilly Mroz talk about a new paper that examines the media depiction of remote consulting during the pandemic.

15 December 2020

1 min read

Book review

Book Review: The Good Ancestor, by Roman Krznaric

Many of us worry about the world our children and grandchildren will grow up in. Dan Jones reviews a book that tells us that action is better than mere worry.

14 December 2020

3 mins read

Opinion

D.I.Y S.O.S

What do you do to help switch off after a busy clinical day? Read? Paint? Brick-lay? GP and post-CCT Fellow, Sophie Ingham, reveals her surprising discovery of D.I.Y as a therapeutic tool during the COVID-19 pandemic.

11 December 2020

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read

Resuscitation: lessons learned from a complex situation.

'Assessing the danger had simply involved walking up to a mannequin’s bedside on an ILS course and stating, “I have looked around the patient and cannot see anything dangerous”.' However, Charles Slater, then a medical student, found that in real life things

10 December 2020

6 mins read

2

Opinion

Three types of agnosia

We doctors are pretty smart, yes? Chris Tiley identifies three critical areas of understanding that we need to get straight.

9 December 2020

2 mins read

BJGP Long Read

Harold Shipman, Serial Killer: Mad, Bad or … What? Our righteous horror revisited

Not another article about Shipman? But 20 years on David Zigmond's reflections on the man who contaminated our medical world for ever suggest worthwhile new insights. Read on...

8 December 2020

9 mins read

1

Opinion

Wild Swimming

Missing the gymn or pool? Or just Covid enui? James Douglas challenges us to try wild swimming!

7 December 2020

3 mins read

Podcast·Videos

Episode 013: Approaches to help address missed appointments (DNAs) in general practice

Dr Tom Margham talks to us about quality improvement approaches to tackle DNAs - it's more about the system than the patient.

7 December 2020

1 min read

Book review

Book review: Emotions as Original Existences: A Theory of Emotion, Motivation and the Self.

Our rationality is our core defining human characteristic - right? Maybe not! Christopher Dowrick reviews an important book on the central role of our emotions.

5 December 2020

2 mins read

Opinion

Gut feeling is changing in the post coronavirus world

There is a growing research interest in doctor's "gut feeling" about diagnosis in consultations. But Covid has radically changed our consultations. Can our gut feelings catch up?

4 December 2020

3 mins read

Opinion

The Patient Voice: Antidepressant withdrawal, MUS and FND

Marion Brown and Stevie Lewis urgently remind us to make sure we are not mistaking antidepressant adverse effects and/or withdrawal issues for medically unexplained symptoms, functional neurological disorders or chronic fatigue syndrome.

3 December 2020

3 mins read

5

Coronavirus

Communicating confusion; predicting chaos

Tiers before bedtime! Samar Razaq reflects on the government's struggle to communicate its policy on COVID restrictions.

2 December 2020

3 mins read

Coronavirus

Two-Tiered Medicine: the increasing disparity in medical care in the UK

The UK Government's dependence on the private sector when outsourcing COVID-related contracts has resulted in a number of costly disasters. Here, Judith Dawson reveals the lack of accountability and obligation the private healthcare sector have towards both their patients and consultants, and

1 December 2020

4 mins read

Coronavirus

Listening to the patients’ voice: impact of digital-first technologies on quality, safety, and equity of primary care during COVID

To adapt to the demands of COVID “digital-first” models of care (i.e. telephone, video, online) have been implemented to minimise face-to-face contact between patients and providers. Ana Luísa Neves and collegues ask a simple question - are we listening to what patients want?

30 November 2020

3 mins read

Book review

Book (Graphic Novel) Review. From Hell: Master Edition

Sati Heer-Stavert reviews a somewhat graphic Graphic Novel and draws some surprising conclusions....

28 November 2020

3 mins read

Bright Ideas and Innovation

Life as a Physician Associate ‘BP’? (Before primary care preceptorships)

Physician Associates play an increasing role within of primary care teams. Ria Agarwal describes her own steep learning curve and tells us how PAs need to be supported.

27 November 2020

4 mins read

Coronavirus

More early interventions for Covid-19 in the community are required

How can primary care be improved upon to aid patients and the burden on secondary care during the COVID-19 pandemic? Luis Ayerbe and colleagues discuss how clinical interventions, delivered in the community, from the moment of diagnosis, could reduce the need for

26 November 2020

2 mins read

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.