A recent warning from the UK Health Security Agency suggests that London is at risk of a major measles outbreak due to poor measles vaccination coverage. What does this mean for general practice?
This short book of handwritten text and drawings from life is useful for anyone involved with the process of dying and death. It takes less than 15 minutes to read the text and illustrations but you will probably want to read it
In this episode, we talk to Emma Whitfield about diagnostic windows in non-cancer diseases.
"School is integral to the long-term wellbeing and aspirations of children, so it is a cause for significant concern that school absence has increased markedly since the COVID-19 pandemic ... "
...people will only ‘buy in’ to a particular something if they first realise and understand why that something should be considered as valuable to them. Richard Armitage argues that we should 'Start with Why'
The service I work in was set up by the local Aboriginal community, because they were being poorly served by the health services that existed at the time. Part of this was that the options offered seemed to operate on a narrow,
All of us in the NHS want to help people, we wouldn’t be here otherwise. But, and I only use diabetes as an example, how much of our work now inadvertently keeps a proportion of our patient’s sick?
In this episode, we talk to the winners of the 2023 RCGP/SAPC Early Career Researcher awards, Dr Sarah Bailey and Dr Ben Brown.
In a podcast recorded by the Medical Republic, Jens Sondergaard outlined six main reasons it’s great to work in Danish general practice. Nada Khan weighs up the evidence for moving to Denmark.
"I feel vindicated reading the book that I am doing the right thing. There needs to be a distinction between temporary human distress and mental illness." - Elke Hausmann reviews What Mental Illness Really Is ... (And What It Isn't) by Lucy
'Caring for carers is everyone’s business, though general practitioners (and we use our words wisely) are perhaps best placed to identify and support carers -more so than other health professionals.' argue Helen Walker and Clare Gerada
If we want to avoid missing significant diagnoses, and tigers, we cannot examine every symptom or blade of grass exhaustively, but we can cultivate an openness to the sort of cognitive dissonance that points to unrecognised danger. Ben Hoban explains
'More of the same won’t fix general practice.' So, what should we be doing differently? The Lazarus project is designed to take GPs out of ‘usual care’ to a different space for professional practice ...
Episode 126: Gender differences in pay and uptake of partnership roles – what can we do differently?
In this episode, we talk to Dr Laura Jefferson about gender differences in uptake in partnership roles and the reasons behind the disparities.
Introducing a temporary weight loss fix using GLP-1 agonists without consideration of the wider implications and long-term plan is quite frankly, an absurdly short-sighted idea, argues Elizabeth Dapre
This is an outstandingly well-written debut novel and enables the reader to glimpse into the terrifying world of serious mental illness in an open and revealing way ...
Have you heard of brain reprocessing therapy or neuroplastic reprogramming? Elke Hausmann first heard about it during a webinar on work support options for NHS staff with long covid. This book gives hope in that it provides the tools that anyone can
What can be done? These are five low-cost steps to take forward a modern version of the family doctor.
In both primary and secondary care, we see firsthand the concerning, growing impact of mould on the health and wellbeing of our patients. These cases are a stark reminder of how significantly more needs to be done to combat the devastating impact
"There is a lack of ADHD training for GPs, and GPs are often lacking accurate knowledge and confidence when dealing with ADHD in their practice. In light of this, we received 3-year funding from the ESRC to co-develop and evaluate tailored online
In this episode, we talk to Ruth Swann about the 2014 and 2018 National Cancer Diagnosis Audits.
We often consider the malfunctioning of the health service to be someone else’s fault; the government's, the GPs', the receptionist's … but if we reflect on how our expectations, as a society, have changed over time, perhaps we might find ourselves complicit.
Kevin Kelly collects sage advice. He edits them and adds some personal observations. His 21st century description is that they are like wisdom tweets. Terry Kemple is inspired to join in!
"Our calcified medical models eventually crumble with the metastasis of authenticity. There are consequences if you want to be a good doctor. This is the game I play and I have accepted the rules. How pathogenic of me." Sati Heer-Stavert shares an
In this episode, we talk to Dr Alex Hodkinson about the associations between GP burnout and prescribing for opioids and antibiotics.
In general practice we can discuss end of life and treatment escalations decisions with patients before they become very unwell, and this is where the ReSPECT process could potentially give a space for a meaningful patient-centred discussion about preferences at the end
Our relationships with patients are more than just transactional, but they do not need to be based on affection or necessarily on duration. A good doctor-patient relationship is simply one that enables both parties to bridge the gap between them, and it
In an attempt to improve physical health outcomes in this group, patients registered at their GP practice as having a severe metal illness are eligible to undergo an annual health check in a primary care setting. Richard Armitage discusses recent progress.
Hannah Milton discusses...a gradual withdrawal from social life starting in mid-teens, often with school refusal alongside an altered sleep pattern, gaming or social media addiction and a restricted and unhealthy diet with a total lack of exercise.
Most practices at some point may find themselves in a tricky situation of having to look for a new practice manager. Adnan Saad shares some starting points. Additional insights are welcome in the comments!
In this episode, we talk to Ameerah Ibrahim and Carmel Hughes about how to effectively integrate pharmacists into general practice.
The Metropolitan police chief, Sir Mark Rowley, has said that his officers will not attend calls for mental health incidents from 31 August 2022 unless there’s an immediate threat to life. Nada Khan investigates the key issues in this national scheme its
The recent release of “Queen Charlotte”, the Bridgerton spin-off series on Netflix, has reignited interest in the illness of King George III. Whilst the series is described as ‘fiction inspired by fact,’ the story of King George leads into the wider
Professor Joanne Reeve applies a new book on Mindlines and finds hope for UK primary healthcare
So what we need is the invention of a ‘new category’ of General Practitioner. David Mummery sets out his manifesto for the future general practitioner. Discussion welcome!
So what now, given that suboptimal asthma care in the UK is increasing the morbidity and mortality of patients living with asthma coupled with rising asthma care-related carbon footprint? Vasumathy Sivarajasingam offers some useful reflections.
How many of us allow ourselves the possibility that from our vantage point as general practitioners, we may have had our focus so sharpened by years of walking alongside our patients that we might see the benefit of a letter where bland
In this episode, we speak to Nick Thomas about the research activities and opportunities within the RCGP.
Hannah Barnes has fastidiously documented the decades of issues at GIDS in a way that raises concern about the treatment of gender dysphoric and highly distressed young people in the UK. The book doesn’t give any answers about how a gender service
I find Smith’s rage to be energising and I do not think that those of us who grew up before Smith during second wave feminism in the 1970s can sit this one out. To have the case for the importance of biological