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BJGP Life

BJGP Life

The BJGP is the world-leading primary care journal. At BJGP Life we add multi-media comment and opinion for the primary care community.

Beware of little worlds

We cannot manage without models, but it is easy to forget that they are not the same as reality, and that their utility depends not just on their ability to provide a sense of congruence, but on the degree to which they
11 April 2024
3 mins read

A Necessary Kindness

The author strongly supports a woman’s right to choose, arguing for the decriminalisation of abortion in the UK, suggesting that it should be regulated as a part of healthcare. She describes recent cases where women have been given custodial sentences which have
6 April 2024
1 min read
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Where ocean sailing and medical practice converge

The greatest challenge was a general practice one: not making a definitive diagnosis but to triage, having to decide what was safe to watch and wait, what could be managed with resources onboard the ship, what needed to be seen on land,
5 April 2024
4 mins read

Public (dis)satisfaction with general practice

The results of this survey are depressing yet unsurprising – GPs are thoroughly aware of both their increasing workloads and helpless inability to satisfy the relentlessly growing demand, despite our best efforts. 
3 April 2024
3 mins read

Diverging at the horizon

Train-tracks approaching the horizon appear to converge, although in reality, they remain equidistant. UK General Practice finds itself on a train journey along tracks which seem to do the opposite: the further down the line we look, the more they diverge. Should
25 March 2024
3 mins read

The Diary of a Somebody: on the banality of heroism

"What Nicky Winton had once done was save the lives of 669 children, for whom he arranged air and rail journeys to the UK after the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939. As it happens, one of the children he saved was my
23 March 2024
4 mins read
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The risks of medical investigation are often overlooked

Investigations themselves can throw up results that are difficult to interpret, and they may reveal abnormalities of uncertain significance. To highlight these issues to our patients would constitute more ethical practice, would foster greater patient empowerment, and could result in a frame
22 March 2024
6 mins read
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At the National Theatre: Nye

I found this an inspiring, uplifting play about one of my heroes – the Welsh firebrand and father of the NHS, Aneurin “Nye” Bevan – vividly brought to life by another Welsh hero, the actor Michael Sheen.
21 March 2024
2 mins read
1

The emergence of ‘surrogate uncertainty’

The clinician who has seen the patient has now “off-loaded” their uncertainty on to the broad shoulders of the GP who has to now carry this “surrogate uncertainty” along with all their other worries for the day. It is true that GPs
13 March 2024
2 mins read
1
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Belly Woman by Benjamin Black

You may recognise the frustration and anger that surface when resources run short; fractures in infrastructure become apparent; staff are scarce, undertrained and approaching burnout; protocols written by distant bureaucrats fail to reflect the realities you are seeing on the front line;
8 March 2024
4 mins read
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Yonder: Farewell

"I remain fascinated by, and grateful for, the excellent research that sheds light on all aspects of our work and the lives of our patients. As I hang up my pen, I take this opportunity to tip my hat to all those
28 February 2024
2 mins read
3
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Believing our own tinctures

...cognitive bias sustained public faith in the medical profession long before doctors had the tools to truly alter the course of an illness. These forces did not disappear the moment that working therapeutics arrived - meaning we remain enthralled by own salves
24 February 2024
2 mins read
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