We talk to Nishadi Withanage about preconception care in general practice and the results of their systematic review of interventions in practice for men and women.
Uptake of national screening programmes suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, but how are uptake numbers faring post-pandemic? Richard Armitage presents the data ...
As FIFA excitement reaches fever pitch, it’s squeaky bum time for health care services already struggling with long wait times, capacity issues and a workforce crisis.
"He is not a man we would ever know or like, but he is interesting" – Terry Kemple reviews Henry 'Chips' Channon: The Diaries, Volumes 1–3 edited by Simon Heffer
To help patients to live well with long-term conditions, Megan Coverdale proposes that there are 3 levels of change that must be targeted within primary care to collectively reform the management of chronic illness
We attend reputable GP-training events and feel confident that the training delivered will be up to date and relevant. And yet, there's something about menopause where all this somehow falls apart.
We talk to Mai Stafford about continuity of care in different ethnic groups and the implications for policy and practice.
In 1946, the Constitution of the World Health Organization defined health as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. Ever since, this definition has been widely criticised and many alternatives have
While various definitions of health have been offered over recent centuries, the search for an enduring and completely satisfying definition has proven frustratingly elusive. Richard Armitage wrestles with one of the most recent and promising definitions.
This book focuses on Dr Elizabeth Blackwell in America, and Dr Elizabeth Garrett-Anderson and Dr Sophia Jex-Blake in England and explores the difficulties they faced in forging their way in medicine.
In my early years of practice, I thought the very act of named diagnosis was a victory. As time has progressed ... I have grown to realise that this semantic box does not in itself contain the cure, and sometimes, can contain
"On my clinical days, I focus on the micro-level of health care. Thinking about the macro-level of things, including the politics of it all, tends to send my heart rate up when I am in the thick of clinical practice. Am I
Social prescribing: Fiaz A Hussain and Feryad A Hussain present the experiences of a group facilitator with extensive experience of running community groups, offering patient feedback, highlighting the challenges of implementation at the coalface, and offering a number of considerations for GPs
We talk to Dr Laura Armitage about why we should measure night-time blood pressure to diagnose hypertension
While no GPs or other celebrity doctors have featured on the cast of any previous I’m a Celeb series, it seems far from impossible for such an event to transpire. Richard Armitage ponders...
The clocks going back as we descend into winter each year generates an additional hour that we generally choose to spend asleep. A poignant philosophical reflection on time.
"This book is a beautiful representation of what is wonderful, difficult, complex, and rewarding about our job" – Hannah Milton reviews 34 Patients: What Becoming a Doctor Taught Me About Health, Hope and Humanity by Tom Templeton
I’d imagine that a fair few of my colleagues can relate to the fact that most days, I feel like a walking, talking pie chart, cut up into colour-coded segments. Are we so lost in the political drive to provide access, that
In an age of mass-production and commodification it is not surprising that the governmental response to our increasing losses of doctors is to recurrently and rhetorically press for greater production and wider recruitment. But in doing so are we avoiding deeper human
We talk to Pauline Williams about help seeking in women with symptoms of gynecological cancer and her recent systematic review in this area.
Twitter has undoubtedly become the world’s digital town square, and provides the soapbox upon which contemporary issues and political dialogue are played out in real time. Richard Armitage explores the Twittersphere in the wake of Elon Musk's takeover.
A few minutes when they were outside, they started hearing the sounds of police cars and sirens and a loud deep droning noise, like a distant thunder, with the police obviously making their way to the ICAC... But it was too late
"a long, detailed, and, at times, harrowing book, but it is worth the effort" – Hannah Milton reviews The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
The growing SAS workforce, and the stalling growth of the GP workforce, combined with warnings of a mass exodus from the profession, has clearly got people thinking. The GMC report suggests that the solutioninvolves shifting the SAS workforce into general practice.
The winning submission of the Royal Society of Medicine John Fry Prize by Salwa Ahmad.
We talk to Julien Vos about pathways for survivorship care in colorectal cancer, and how patients experienced GP-led care in the Netherlands.
Gareth came round with the checklist and electronic timesheet and held the face scanner in front of each of their faces in turn to register their arrival... speculative fiction by Georgia Avon (Part 2)
Although the doctor-patient relationship works in favour of promoting healing, it may not be sufficient.
Doctors are inordinately fond of nouns. By and large, patients come to us not just with nouns, but with stories which include them but are driven along by verbs, words of action, backed up by adverbs, pronouns, and so on...
Social media has transformed the ways we live as a society, forever altering the ways in which we communicate and relax. And this abrupt change to social discourse which has gradually developed over thousands of years is having implications for young people.
We talk to Jeremy Horwood about the unintended consequences of patient online access to medical records, and ways that practices can mitigate against these.
What is the Metaverse? What does it do? How does it work? Richard Armitage offers answers to these questions and presents what a consultation in the Metaverse may look like in the future.
...the term GP, she remembered that had previously existed, had been changed to IHP – Integrated Health Practitioner - in 2026 by the RCPHP... speculative fiction by Georgia Avon (Part 1)
Austin O'Carroll reviews 'Reading to Stay Alive: Tolstoy, Hopkins and the Dilemmas of Existence' by Chris Dowrick
General practice needs to become more efficient while improving care quality and safety. How can we do this? SNOMED CT holds some of the answers, but many practices are unaware of its full potential ...
How is it that 'part time' GPs are working 'full time' hours? Nada Khan investigates!
Ben Cranfield discusses how common blood tests are used in primary care prior to a diagnosis of cancer, and the implications for diagnostic intervals.
This book should be required reading before applying to medical school. Understanding Henrietta Lacks’ story and her immortal cells is important for all doctors and scientists argues Hannah Milton.
So anyway, I left by the COVID door under cover of a virtual PCN meeting, figuring that by the time anyone noticed the urine samples building up at reception I’d be long gone. I’d heard of a guy with the kind of
Trans people face multiple barriers to health care from various healthcare providers. Here, Kamilla Kamaruddin describes how working with charities can improve services and residence workload.