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Book review: Finding the mother tree

Trish Greenhalgh suggests we learn from other disciplines about the folly of taking an overly reductive, one-variable-at-a-time view of the world and mistaking it for the highest form of science.
9 April 2022
3 mins read

Advanced Access – a step in the wrong direction

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. If the recent film ‘The Darkest Hour’ is anything to go by, Winston Churchill would have liked a ‘Drinks by the Dram’ Advent Calendar – available last December on Amazon for a shilling short
31 May 2018
4 mins read
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Is reflective practice safe?

Chloe Webster is a 4th year medical student, a yogaholic, creative writing enthusiast, and an aspiring future GP. You can read more of her articles. Back then, reflection didn’t really mean anything. It was just another word branded and thrown about through
28 May 2018
3 mins read
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Life, Interrupted

Life was simple last summer. I was a happily busy wife and mother, enjoying work and keeping fit. I was in good shape, having lost a little weight, and felt great. Until one day when I developed a fever and myalgia. Looking
23 May 2018
2 mins read
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Why do you want to be a GP? The one question we don’t ask

The first question to practise before a job interview; the one we all know will make an appearance…right? Well, not if you’ve chosen to pursue a career in general practice. Whilst my colleagues were preparing evidence of their accomplishments and practising expected
18 May 2018
2 mins read
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Life on the other side… my patient journey

Being a patient has certainly made me think a lot. About everything. From the constant waiting, to the unanswered questions, the consultation process, the umpteen tests that get ordered as a snowball effect (turns out once you start seeing doctors, we like
26 April 2018
7 mins read
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25 tips on managing complaints: A personal defence strategy

Vernon Needham has been a GP partner, trainer, and police surgeon amongst many other roles in a varied career. He continues to work with the Wessex Deanery Professional Support Unit. Here he offers 25 tips for managing complaints and forming your personal
23 April 2018
3 mins read
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The Needle in the Haystack

Specialty bashing is not new or uncommon in the NHS. It is particularly directed at those training in general practice and has been a known problem for many generations. Despite a call for change, undermining of this specialty continues to haunt the
20 February 2018
3 mins read
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When Sparks Fly: Choosing General Practice

Chloe Webster is a 4th year medical student, a yogaholic, creative writing enthusiast, and an aspiring future GP. He was so different from the rest. Often, the only patients I remember clearly in my mind are unfortunately those who make me sad
18 February 2018
2 mins read
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BJGP Long Read: People or Procedures?

Recent advances in genetic mapping herald some dramatically positive developments in hi tech healthcare. Yet this is paralleled by unprecedented ailing demoralisation and alienation within the service that will deliver these. How do we explain this discrepancy? What can we expect?
12 February 2018
12 mins read
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Bright Ideas: improving pre-diabetes care

Darwen Healthcare came up with a plan to improve pre-diabetes care and won an RCGP Bright Ideas Award. The RCGP’s Bright Ideas initiative recognises that GPs and practice staff regularly see opportunities to improve their practice, and often do so by taking
22 January 2018
2 mins read
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The man in sideroom 2

Chloe Webster is a 4th year medical student, a yogaholic, creative writing enthusiast, and an aspiring future GP. Through the zig-zag maze of the ward, he was in the first room on the left. An odd-shaped room, tucked in tight, just after
9 January 2018
3 mins read
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The Bravest Decision

Chloe Webster is a 4th year medical student, a yogaholic, creative writing enthusiast, and an aspiring future GP. I was just absentmindedly skimming through some patient notes, pushing paperwork for a research study, and there it was. In black and white –
6 December 2017
1 min read
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Managing ‘medic mum guilt’ as a GP

Mehwish Sharif is a salaried GP in West Bromwich and does locum sessions in the Black Country. I recall thinking about a 5 year plan after completing GP VTS. The plan was quite simple, achieving a good work-life balance between personal and
21 November 2017
3 mins read
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My story of everyday scholarship in general practice

Faraz Mughal is a GP in Birmingham and the RCGP Clinical Fellow in Children and Young People’s Mental Health. He is on Twitter: @farazhmughal Making scholarship part of my daily practice contributes to the intellectual challenge and enjoyment of my work in general
26 April 2017
2 mins read
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Obituary for St James Church Surgery: the death of a practice

St James Church Surgery 1987-2016: the demise of small General Practices A personal celebration and lament David Zigmond Small general practices used to be very common and mostly popular. Yet due to healthcare policies they are now increasingly rare and almost extinct.
30 November 2016
5 mins read
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Why have an operation if you can avoid one?

George Ampat is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon hoping to help patients find non-surgical solutions. Why have an operation if you can avoid one? It’s a simple question with an obvious answer but increasingly surgery is being used where it may not be
19 July 2016
2 mins read
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Hearing crackles: reflections on PACES and prejudice

Rachel Brettell is an Academic Clinical Fellow GP Trainee in the Oxford Deanery. As a GP registrar, the MRCGP Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) exam is currently at the forefront of my mind. VTS teaching focuses on how to pass, evenings are spent
15 April 2016
6 mins read
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GP Journal Club – Sunday 10th April at 8pm

The next GP Journal Club will be discussing the paper: Lorgeril M, Rabaeus M. Beyond confusion and controversy, can we evaluate the real efficacy and safety of cholesterol-lowering with statins? JCBMR 2016;1(1):67 You can download it here. Angharad Powell is a Portfolio
9 April 2016
2 mins read
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GP Journal Club – March 2016

The March GP Journal Club is now on Storify. The paper discussed was: Holt TA, Fletcher E, Warren F, et al. Telephone triage systems in UK general practice: analysis of consultation duration during the index day in a pragmatic randomised controlled trial.
21 March 2016
1 min read
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Trainee notes: Life school

Aisha Yahaya is a GP ST2 with Imperial VTS who has an interest in effective communication with patients, writing and a yearly resolution to save her guitar from the dusty corner in which it sits. Increasingly, I learn more about the way of
2 March 2016
2 mins read
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GP Journal Club 28th February 2016 – Bariatric surgery in the NHS

Paper: Douglas IJ, Bhaskaran K, Batterham RL, Smeeth L. Bariatric Surgery in the United Kingdom: A Cohort Study of Weight Loss and Clinical Outcomes in Routine Clinical Care. PLoS Med. 2015 Dec 22;12(12):e1001925. Link: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001925 Ahmed Rashid is an academic clinical fellow
23 February 2016
1 min read
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Qualitative research and the BJGP

Kath Checkland (@khcheck) is a GP and a Professor at the University of Manchester. She is a passionate advocate of the value of qualitative research, and is a member of the BJGP editorial board. On Saturday, the British Medical Journal published an
19 February 2016
4 mins read
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