Richard Armitage takes a critical look at the shift to offering more urgent than planned general practice appointments, and finds it is a complicated trade off between competing priorities
Ayesha Siddqui shares a clinical case to remind GPs why it is vital to heed clinical cues and check patient vital signs
In this episode we talk to Dr Stephen Bradley about the variation in the use of CXRs between practices and the implications for early diagnosis of lung cancer.
Stephen Opare-Sakyi argues that GPs should see patients as whole people, but should be seen as whole people as well - by governments, patients, and each other.
John Launer muses on what Mozart's Magic Flute can teach us about family medicine
Marion Brown reviews Michael P. Hengartner'a critique of the pharmaceutical evidence for antidepressant use and underlying disease models.
Arthur Kaufman reflects on intergenerational tensions from the older British citizen's perspective. It is easy to see these being implicit or even explicit in the consultation.
Richard Armitage argues that COVID-19 booster campaigns are a golden opportunity for health promotion, which could decrease COVID-19 effects and have wide benefits as well. Commissioners take note!
Consultations about relationships prompt Bhupinder Goraya to reflect on the consultation relationship - could 'beginner's mind be the answer?'
Austin O'Carroll argues that the label of personality disorder is inappropriate and harmful to patients who have suffered adverse social environments in childhood. By simultaneously ignoring social causation and denying the possibility of therapy the diagnosis perpetrates a systematic injustice against those
As notice-boards overflow with helpful advice, are we entering an age of extreme wallpapering? Madge McClary argues we should stem this tide for the sake of all!
Afsana Bhuyia and colleagues give us a de-mystifying introduction to dashboards and registries, digital public health tools which they are using in their work on the management of cancer.
Dr Anita Lim talks about a trial that found offering older women non-speculum sampling with their clinician can improve uptake for cervical screening.
As workload pressures squeeze the consultation times, Rubia Usman writes an open letter asking patients to remember that their GP is human too
Media images of mask-wearing healthcare staff rarely depict primary care. A facet of the existential crisis facing general practice is that of identity. As it stands, it feels as if GPs have been judged in pseudo-absentia. Sati Heer-Stavert calls us all
Over the last 18 months, anyone with any opinion, be it a politician or a journalist, has had something to say about general practice. Samar Razaq considers the roller coaster ride of unreason.
Are at least 50% of jobs in the industrialised world pointless and unnecessary? Emma McKenzie-Edwards reviews "Bullshit jobs – the rise of pointless work and what we can do about it", by David Graeber.
Andrew Papanikitas and colleagues show us that reflection on our professional lives can be as easy as child's play.
Yvette Pyne has taken a tour of the beautiful city of Paris just before Christmas. No, not the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and shopping, but refugee squats as a medic for a charity providing medical assistance to asylum seekers in France.
Why on earth would a GP read a textbook of radiology? John Launer finds wisdom for all doctors in an unexpected place.
'Knowledge work' is the work that clinicians do to find, create, and use knowledge in everyday clinical practice. Annabelle Machin and her colleagues explain the role of the WISDOM project.
Krishnakant Buch's GP exploded a telephonic bomb shell: ‘You have type 2 diabetes'. Here he tells us what he did about it, and how he conquered the Diabetes UK, one million step challenge.
Hannah Milton reviews "What Happened to You?" by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey. The The book seeks to shift conversations away from “what is wrong with you?” to “what happened to you?”
Are we now facing increasing discrimination and prejudice against the elderly? Madge McClary speaks out for a generation.
Dr Iona Heath talks about the GP crisis and offers a rewilding approach for the future direction of general practice.
Generally speaking, we like to consider medical practice as a matter of hard science rather than opinion. Bhupinder Goraya also invites us to treat disagreement with kindness.
Increasing money and training to refuel our weakening and unstable NHS healthcare workforce may be necessary, but it is certainly not sufficient. David Zigmond tells us why.
Medicine is the discipline of uncertainty, and this is true of GP training. Koki Kato suggests managing these uncertainties in the same way that we do in consultations.
The Financial Times appears to suggest that family doctors may no longer be needed. Nick Berry probes the realities behind the headline.
It is 50 years since The Lancet published Julian Tudor Hart’s seminal paper describing the inverse care law. Stewart Mercer and colleagues report on the Scottish Deep End Group's half day online conference.
Dr Jordan Moxey and Dr Carol Sinnott come on the podcast to tell us about research that directly observed what consumes GPs’ time and what disrupts their ability to complete tasks.
The last 2 years have demonstrated that disease and mortality does discriminate by postcode, but some argue the ‘inverse care law’ is an ideological stance rather than a medical issue. Daniel Butler and Nigel Hart add to the debate over the question
This week is National Grief Awareness Week. Daniel Knights and Catherine Millington-Sanders signpost some useful resources, to help us to support bereaved patients.
GPs have important roles of backstop and referral, and continuity of care for patients with long-covid. Nicola Spiers reviews the current evidence.
Have you ever looked at a cloud and seen the likeness of a cartoon character? This phenomenon is known as pareidolia. Laura Amarin and Camille Gajria tell us about pareidolia in medicine.
GPs are often the first and last healthcare contact for those who die by suicide. Maria Michail shares news of an excellent resource to support both GPs and their patients.
Dr Claire Friedemann Smith talks about the patient perspective on GPs who use gut feelings to help facilitate diagnosis.
How many times a day are we hearing the ‘R’ word in our lives? The request of healthcare staff to be r*******t at a time when primary care is assaulted daily by the British media and those in power is an insult.
Being able to connect to others, to find joy and meaning in a common purpose, is not an added extra but is the very stuff of human life. But what of the effects of the Covid pandemic? Johanna Reilly discusses her concerns.
If only there were interventions that reduce morbidity and frailty in the elderly! Helen Burn reminds us that there already are: exercise and social interaction.