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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.

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Space-Dreaming in Lambeth

To commemorate 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge,' (3rd September 1802), Dave Mummery shares a Lambeth reverie with suggestions for musical accompaniment.
3 September 2025
4 mins read
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Knocking for help: a hidden strain of GP-training

In clinical scenarios that are unfamiliar or require in-person review, trainees are often forced to leave their patients mid-consultation to seek help. The act of “door knocking” i.e interrupting a colleague who is themselves consulting - can feel burdensome. Hana Esack reflects.
1 September 2025
2 mins read

Book review: Intervals

"... I found this an inspiring account of what it means to care and to be cared for by a loving relative. Brooker’s brilliant book blends care ethics, philosophy, grief, and practical wisdom, offering GPs and primary care teams a different perspective
30 August 2025
1 min read
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A Poem : Beyond The Extra Mile.

A poem for the beleaguered, the determined or the stubborn amongst us, who go to work each day and just do the best we can. Rest assured, despite the clamour and noise of unmet expectation, it is enough.
28 August 2025
1 min read
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Ulysses and the GP consultation

"Would I recommend Ulysses to a GP colleague? As a challenging read and a slow antidote to the nature of our rapid and fragmented working days; and maybe to serve as a reminder of how much goes unspoken during those precious 15
25 August 2025
1 min read

“AI psychosis”

While not (yet) a formal diagnosis, the term "AI psychosis" or “ChatGPT psychosis” is being used to describe presentations in which delusional or psychotic symptoms centre around interaction with large language models (LLMs).
20 August 2025
2 mins read
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How to use a stethoscope

Listen. Through me, you’ll hear the lub-dub of a beating heart, the heave of a heavy spirit, whisperings and murmurs of a broken life. Poetry by Emer Forde
19 August 2025
1 min read
2
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Home is where the heart is?

I'd spoken to so many residents on the phone but I hadn't ever quite got the picture of what the living conditions were like. I did now. The poor chests that never truly recovered from antibiotics, the perennial mental health difficulties -
16 August 2025
4 mins read
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The Waiting Room

"I go into the waiting room for the next patient I am too see. So many sit there staring, yet not all are waiting for me." – Poem by Giles Dawney
13 August 2025
1 min read

Book review: Kaiser Frederick’s Throat

"In this historical novel, Mike Pringle, former Royal College of General Practitioners Chair of Council and President, has written a gripping tale of how professional and political rivalry led to the mismanagement of Queen Victoria’s son-in-law with devastating consequences ..."
6 August 2025
1 min read
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The absurdity of GP funding in Wales

"The premise of this formula (Carr-Hill) is very reasonable and fair. Sadly, it doesn’t always work, partly due to at least two anomalies in the formula. To understand this, we’ve had to employ a fair degree of nerdery as the formula is
28 July 2025
3 mins read
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Your brain on ChatGPT – one for the journal club!

The researchers coined the term "cognitive debt" to describe how LLMs spare the user mental effort in the short term but generate long-term costs including diminished critical thinking, reduced creativity and independent thought, increased vulnerability to bias and manipulation, and shallow information
23 July 2025
3 mins read
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Samples (poem)

Our patients leave the room yet now some of them left behind. To be taken elsewhere, a fraction of body now extracted from mind.
22 July 2025
1 min read
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On not being paternalistic

...maybe thinking of ourselves as being maternalistic acknowledges existing authority, and allows us to aim for our patients to thrive, to be in control of their destinies, guided by caring, wise professionals.
21 July 2025
2 mins read
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A poem: Heart failure.

Using a narrative based approach can also enrich our own perspective and give us boldness to hold back from encasing patients in the tight algorithms that chronic disease management is often associated with. Becca Quinn offers a reframing poem.
16 July 2025
1 min read
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