"While undoubtedly fibromyalgia may not be adequately covered in the medical curriculum, I am not sure that this book fills the gap." – Carolyn Chew-Graham reviews Fibromyalgia by Thanthullu Vasu ...
When someone asks you whether you’re telling them it’s all in their head, the most accurate answer is: Yes, but isn’t everything?
Finding the right partner is critical. With a generation of senior and capable partners retiring and not being replaced at the same rate, there is a huge concern of seeing this post continue to diminish. Here, Adnan Saad outlines how best to
As the latest cohort in the Oxford International Primary Care Research Leadership Programme, we present the ‘10 things we wish we had known’ for anyone considering a career in academic primary care.
In this episode, we talk to Professor Emma Wallace about adverse drug reactions amongst older adults and the implications for primary care.
here’s no appointments, and I’ve waited weeks, To show you my piles, and rash on my cheeks, I’ve also had chest pains, for the last year, And there’s just one more thing, now that I’m here!
"As this book progresses, its early playful, even comedic, lightness gives way to the author’s very substantial criticisms ... [that] attempts to metricise, micromanage, and proceduralise all medical consultations and services has led to the displacement and destructing of trusting relationships ...
Labour seems to have its own version of a disruptor in Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, who declared that he wants to phase out the system of GP partners, & scrap the gatekeeping model of primary care, but how many of
It is well known that the life expectancy of people with severe mental illness (SMI) is reduced by 15–20 years compared to the general population, but what is less well known is that people with SMI also experience serious inequalities in oral
We talk to Becky White about vague cancer symptoms and risk of cancer.
"When a patient who happens to be a barber comes to see me for a consultation, that is precisely what – and only what – he gets. When I go to see my barber for a haircut, however, not only do I
How might American political economists Rawls and Nozick have viewed Julian Tudor Hart's inverse care law? Ayu Takayanagi explores two types of self-interest.
At six-years-of-age, Hibo Wardere was forcibly held down and brutally subjected to Type III female genital mutilation (FGM). This book tells her story, a riveting, personal, and candid account of her journey...
Ask yourself ‘Do I feel lucky?’ This often-misquoted line from Dirty Harry, said by Clint Eastwood in role, serves to introduce the notion of moral luck. Gratifyingly, we do not often find ourselves staring down the barrel of a violent cop wielding
Piecework is advantageous for production where output volume is a reliable proxy for productivity and monitoring and incentivising output volume does not compromise quality. Lara Shemtob and colleagues argue this is inappropriate for general practice.
Apichai Wattanapisit reminds us that lifelong learning is a crucial element to maintain the standard of practices and develop the future career.
We talk to Dr Claire Taylor about testing accuracy for diagnosing heart failure
The results of a recent BMA survey, which asked junior doctors what they felt about leaving the NHS, should send a shudder to the heart of the NHS, including through general practice upon which the health system stands.
"Out of nowhere a fit GP [Paul Coffey] ... approaching retirement is diagnosed with inoperable gastric cancer ... Coffey charts the medical, human, oncological, and psychological dramas that take place over the next 3 years with great charm, insight, intelligence, and honesty."
"For me, Range gave credibility to a pre-existing feeling — that early specialisation is less likely to succeed." – Richard Armitage reviews Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, with additional reflections on GP training and today's general practice ...
Ben Hoban suggests that GPs can keep track of more in the consultation by not worrying about keeping track of so much, but instead choosing what to focus on.
Tim Senior argues that without GPs we systemically remove the part of the health system that has researched and trained in handling relationships and complexity, and is capable of doing this well. We need to be able to describe what health systems
What are safe workload limits in general practice, and how can these limits be implemented in practice? Nada Khan investigates.
The editors have a round table discussion looking at the top 10 most read papers on the BJGP website from 2022.
in 2022 Richard Armitage altruistically donated a kidney. He discusses what GPs need to know in order to support patients who choose to go through this process themselves.
"Last night, after the three hours it took to get to the toilet and back, to change the bed, to negotiate the medication, he told me I’m very irritating." - Karen Chumberley reviews Fiona Mason's 36 Hours, a reflection on the last
I am trying to patch a clinical web over your problem ...Empathetically. Communicating blind. Flushing the darkness systematically with questions ...That dredge the deep... A poem by Rebecca Quinn.
...despite all that science has to tells us in general terms about people and how to care for them, it is often harder to pin down on specifics...
Over the last 50 years society has become progressively diverse as the needs of the population continue to change. As these diversities become increasingly recognised, it has resulted in differences becoming more pronounced and the possibility of discrimination thus becoming more prominent.
ChatGPT is an online program allowing a user to ask any question and receive an answer, which can be incredibly detailed, in under 10 seconds. However, what does this mean for primary care? Richard Armitage investigates and puts ChatGPT to the test,
The idea of excess deaths is of course just an attempt to make sense of what’s happening in a complex system with a view to allocating resources appropriately.
"The cost-of-living crisis is descending like a dark cloud and its heavy weight is palpable. As a Deep End GP, every day I see the real impact poverty is having on my patients ... "
Seeing patients once and referring them for imaging offers advantages to busy GPs and busy patients alike, but given the tendency of any test to throw up results of unclear significance, wouldn’t we simply be delegating the management of uncertainty en masse
Topical corticosteroids remain the mainstay treatment for atopic eczema in the UK. However, it is evident from literature searches, and from communicating with dermatologists, that patient or parental underuse, non-compliance, and steroid phobia have been major concerns for some time. This lay
Richard Armitage finds that general anaesthesia is in fact quite unlike sleep in its most fundamental components.
We shared four YouTube links to commercials from department stores and supermarkets of Christmas past and present –We asked all the group to view all of the short films in advance and then discussed them with members taking it in turns to
My love for those who could not help themselves was fuelled by passion,
As medicine became my way of helping them with care and compassion.
Recent data suggest on average 13 600 beds in NHS hospitals across England are occupied every day by patients whom doctors say are ‘medically fit for discharge’. Is it that simple? Here, Peter Levin delves into the complexity of the term 'medically
Occasionally, the worlds of media and healthcare can clash in a way that has pronounced consequences in the real world. Whilst the media may intend to inform, they invariably end up influencing a somewhat frenzied, albeit predictable, behaviour in the public.
We talk to Dr Kitty Worthing about the reasons why practice staff feel reluctant to register undocumented people in general practice.