General practice can play a major role in assisting in raising awareness and supporting primary prevention, early identificationand intervention of domestic abuse, argues Vasumathy Sivarajasingam
The people factors are the strongly positive aspects of the job. But the logistical working conditions must improve for the future of the specialty to be sustainable. Five academic clinical fellows itemise the issues and set out a manifesto for change.
In this episode, we speak to Gillian Doe and Rachael Evans about breathlessness diagnostic pathways and management in general practice.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the NHS, and it is timely to consider the post-1948 story of general practice, and what we can learn from the past to make the future more propitious than it appears. Edin
Yet, from speaking to other women with this condition, I have learnt that it is often their GP that they consult with first, asking: why are my periods lighter since my miscarriage? why have my periods stopped? Could something be wrong, as
Daws quietly subverts our need to make things better and move on, which often makes the consulting room door a revolving one. The alternative is simply to listen, to our patients and ourselves, with a view to enabling change rather than forcing
Fourteen years ago, I watched the drama-documentary-animation hybrid film: The Age of Stupid. This is set in a climate-ravaged 2055, and features a last-surviving human who has been entrusted to archive human records. He is reflecting on news footage demonstrating the devastation
ChatGPT threatens to significantly harm the educational attainment, as well as the intellectual life, of students of medicine and the subjects that compliment it. This poses a serious threat to the ability of such students to deliver safe and effective care once
In this episode, we speak to Jen McLellan and Sultana Bi about the care of menopause amongst ethnic minority women.
Charlie Massey, Chief Executive of the GMC, tells us ‘there is no ready-made batch of GPs waiting to be plucked off the shelf to ease the pressures on the workforce...’ In the bookcase of doctors coming to the rescue of general practice,
Mark Tan offers short reflections on negative descriptors in the International Classification of Diseases 2010 (ICD10)
Immediately following the second World War, an Australian GP (Joseph Collings) observed 55 English practices. His damning report was published in the Lancet in 1950. One must only catch a glimpse of the news to realise that GPs are clearly still working
Richard Armitage uses ChatGPT to interview an AI simulation of the 'Father of Western Medicine.'
On any given day, GPs diagnose and treat, listen, validate, interpret, advise, support, and advocate. A large part of what we do, though, is indirect, by linking patients with various other parts of the healthcare system.
In this episode, we speak to Dr Gail Davidge and Dr Brian McMillan about patient online access to their records.
In an era where difficulties in GP recruitment and retention are having significant impacts on the workforce, will knowing the ‘value’ of a GP give us any clues as to the projected cost in terms of loss to the system if that
‘Dahlia and Carys’ can be read simply as a romantic thriller with kidnapping, daring rescues from active war zones and theft of antiquities. However, its strength lies in its exploration of some hard-hitting contemporary issues including sexuality, the fear engendered by the
Evidence collected by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the World Health Organization in recent months shows that mental health, rehabilitation and the population's access to health services are the top priorities and issues to be addressed. Oleksii Korzh unpacks the
Rabia Aftab advocates that exercising these three Es (Expectations, explanation and empathy) in our consultations offers a path to better satisfaction for GP and patient alike.
In this episode, we speak to Professor Jon Emery about a trial to support targeted colorectal cancer screening.
The population’s patience and tolerance for error seems to have reduced, and we have forgotten what it is to be human. This feels like a dangerous threat to professions that thrive on human interaction.
"Knowing how our brains work best may improve how we lead and organise teams. It could feel like the difference between swimming with the current rather than against it" – Terry Kemple reviews The Social Brain: The Psychology of Successful Groups by
My heart goes out to all of us, who have been 'set up to fail'. Take heart and glove up - the work must go on... A poem by Rebecca Quinn
"More validation should be given to the therapeutic benefits of listening closely and bearing witness to somebody’s suffering." – Rupal Shah and colleagues continue their hermeneutic series, focusing on the importance of relational care in general practice ...
Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a severe mental illness characterised by significant and sometimes extreme changes in mood and energy, which go far beyond most people’s experiences of feeling a bit down or happy. Carolyn Chew-Graham and colleagues offer an update.
In this episode, we speak to Emma Ladds about continuity in the remote age.
Alongside Germany, GPs in the UK experienced some of the highest levels of stress, with 71% of GPs saying that their job is ‘extremely’ or ‘very stressful’, with stress levels increasing by 11% since 2019. Nada Khan discusses…
The effects of the earthquakes on child health in Türkiye are substantial, multifaceted and, without urgent intervention, deeply enduring throughout the life course. Richard Armitage reports from the scene.
The independent contractor model for general practice is one of the under-rated aspects of the NHS that rarely hits the headlines. It is particularly important for our professional autonomy and business flexibility.
In this episode, we speak to Maria Mathews about lessons learned from the Covid pandemic and how to strengthen future pandemic planning in primary care.
s anyone else doing the maths here for parents needing to juggle childcare costs for one or more children? What happens when the cost of childcare outstrips salary? Nada Khan runs the numbers.
Teams are the talk of the town in practice transformation circles. They are extolled as the solution for many of our deficiencies– from chronic staffing shortfalls to employee burnout. This extended essay by David Loxterkamp gives a perspective from American primary care
My assumption was of a middle class journalist parachuting in to a deprived area and reporting through his own middle class lens. How wrong I was – this is actually the extraordinarily reflective work of a man who grew up with
When we use a computer scoring chart and tell a patient they have depression and need medication or even psychological therapy we locate the problem firmly in the brain of one individual. Does this prevent the wider solutions?
The place of Medicine in our imagined future, science fiction, tends to be defined by technology. As in science fiction, so in medicine there is a constant tension between the technological and the human, what is possible and what is desirable.
In this episode, we speak to Lucy Ziegler about the results of a large survey of carers of people who died, and the quality of care they received at the end of life.
"Practice[s] may need to appreciate that by trying to protect one group of staff, they may be exposing another group to vulnerabilities." - Adnan Saad reflects on subconscious gender discrimination in primary care
Sharing my humanity with your humanity, in snapshots, journeying together over a lifetime. That is the essence of the general practice that I know, love and hate simultaneously. Kathleen Wenaden reflects...
"Building Blocks in Paediatrics builds bridges. It builds a bridge between the everyday presentation of undifferentiated childrens’ problems and the core of paediatric medicine." - David Misselbrook reviews Building Blocks in Paediatrics edited by Alfred Nicholson and Kevin Dunne ...
…the sparsely populated rural and remote areas of affected provinces, coupled with the precarious and earthquake-damaged transport infrastructure that supplies them, has allowed the construction of very few formal displacement sites within these areas.