Dr Chaand Nagpaul, Chair of BMA Council, discusses the extraordinary contribution of BAME doctors and other healthcare workers in the NHS who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
The many and varied consequences of COVID-19 are felt disproportionally by those with less resources, both external and internal. We would do well to establish Far End practices and networks akin to our Deep End siblings. We should reach out to the
Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham and Dr David Shier talk about the particular importance of primary care for people with severe enduring mental health problems. They discuss the gaps in care, as well as the opportunities, as we have moved to remote consulting.
The current pandemic has provided an incredible catalyst for change throughout health care, however, change for change’s sake will result in upheaval for staff, confusion for patients and unnecessary investment. By developing an exit strategy early, we can ensure, that general practice
Dr Sian Stanley is Clinical Director of Stort Valley and Villages PCN. She talks about the recovery from COVID-19 and symptoms people are experiencing. She also explains the videos they have been producing to help patients and doctors navigate the new COVID
We anticipate that after the pandemic, the modus operandi of general practice will be changed, for the better. Once the dust has settled, the lessons learnt from remote consultations should be communicated to the next generation.
Professor Clare Heal from James Cook University in Queenslands talks about the impact of COVID-19 in Australia. The overall response has been very effective and included some contact tracing using a smartphone app, though there have been some privacy concerns.
These screens are not intended for use by caregivers and should not be recommended for use by them. Their objective is the same as that of the surgeon in the operating room: to avoid contaminating the environment. This is a paradigm shift
On the 14th March 2020, the emergency plan for family practice started in Belgium. Primary care networks are already proving that they have an added value through communication of relevant news, fostering local peer review and creating the sense of belonging to
Three weeks into the job the thing that keeps me awake at night are the vulnerable patients at risk of domestic abuse confined in their homes. Primary care is the common ground that these patients cross most frequently.
When we finally emerge from the current pandemic, more women and children (throughout the world) will have suffered from and be experiencing the consequences of domestic abuse than ever before. Therefore, during this COVID-19 lockdown and afterwards we need to stay alert
Professor Azeem Majeed from Imperial College talks through COVID-19 mortality and concern about indirect deaths. He puts forward his view that people in their 60s should be taking extra precautions — which raises concerns about older healthcare professionals returning to the frontline
Australia now has one of the flattest COVID-19 curves in the world, one of the lowest death rates. Maybe much of our success is based again on luck. The response of the government to the epidemic was initially a little lethargic, but
Josephine Sauvage is a GP and chair of a north London CCG and she talks through some of the challenges facing practice including death certification in the community, particularly with elderly patients who may present atypically, and the ongoing concern around accessing
What does it mean to be human? Philosophers and scientists alike have struggled since time immemorial to capture the vastness of the human experience and answer this very question. Let us start with the fundamentals — we are a primate. Not the
Dr Tom Round is a GP in Tower Hamlets and a researcher at KCL, London. His research looks at GP referrals and their impact on mortality and stage of disease at presentation. There are now over two million '2 week wait' referrals
Professor John Frey tells us about the reorganisation of primary care in the US and the shift to remote consultations. Practices have been closing as they have lost revenue and 34% of practices in the country may not be financially viable as
At the time of writing the government and the NHS are reeling from the dramatic suddenness of a contagious crisis for which we are largely unprepared. Within a few days the necessary perspectives and needs of public health have prevailed: autarkic NHS
“This pandemic, and now the attack on WHO, is going to set countries back decades”. Richard Horton talks through the worrying impact on health systems throughout the world as WHO faces the prospect of losing 20% of its funding. He offers advice
Over the past few years we have heard a lot about burnout, about the importance of looking after ourselves and our teams, and about the impact feeling burnt out can have on our patients as well as ourselves. How do we bring
Professor Brian McKinstry talks us through the science of remote consultations and the findings of his research. Certain types of consultations, like ones related to mental health, are well suited to video consultation. He also talks about groups where there may be
The differences between US general practice and GPs in the NHS could not be more stark. The NHS supports the ability for GPs to adapt to changes, even catastrophic ones, without threatening to bring the entire system down. Once we are beyond
Dr Ambra Abate talks about her clinical experience in Northern Italy in her practice of 1800 patients. Around 360-370 patients were unwell at one time and they faced severe pressures. Read more at www.bjgplife.com/COVIDItaly.
For decades, digital health has promised to help address many of the challenges of primary care. Digital-first approaches, using either telephone, video or online technologies to deliver care, have the potential of improving efficiency and patient safety, and reducing health inequities by
Dr Clare Gerada, former Chair of the RCGP, talks about her experience with COVID-19. Visit PractitionerHealth.nhs.uk if you need health advice and support — they are there for all GPs and medical students and retired doctors can now also take advantage of
Ambra Abate MD is an Italian doctor working at Ambulatorio Polispecialistico Casazza in northern Italy. He describes his primary care clinical experience with COVID-19.
Dr Hajira Dambha-Miller is the editor of BJGP Open. BJGP's open access online journal is calling for COVID-19 research: Rapid reviews, preliminary work, protocols, research briefs, opinion, or policy pieces are welcome with fast decisions on all submissions.
The NHS put out a call for all recently retired doctors and nurses. There is however another potentially untapped resource. Many GPs are well but self-isolating due to household members. Learn more about volunteering to work at home and with NHS 111.
Rather than re-invent the wheel, the GPs at Penshurst Gardens Surgery are utilising the established Kübler-Ross stages of grief in an innovative way to help diagnose COVID mental health problems and explore the available options to guide personalised, compassionate care.
The government has highlighted patients most at risk in the COVID-19 pandemic due to their physical health problems. In primary care we will also be aware of patients who are particularly vulnerable due to social circumstances. We know that women involved in
Iona Heath, past president of the RCGP, talks further about how we handle death during the pandemic. She expresses concern at the blanket exclusion of relatives as people die from COVID-19 and how we are handling it in the current crisis. She
Is the best strategy to strike hard and wipe out the pandemic early in a country or to let it go on and flatten the curve until herd immunity develops? The Swedish strategy is based on thorough information and gentle advice trusting
Azeem Majeed is Professor of Primary Care and Head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London and he is a world-leading primary care epidemiologist. In this short video he talks about the changing epidemiology of COVID-19
Like many, I’ve always had a slight mental block with telephone consulting as there is so much value for the both the patient and the doctor in real contact. However, I want to take a positive approach to change, and be part
We propose the following near telemedicine protocol for GPs – a modified version of that recently proposed by Gunasekera for ophthalmologists.
Dr Stephen Bradley talks about some of the concerns of managing vulnerable patients during the COVID-19 crisis. Homeless patients, people who use drugs, asylum seekers and refugees have particular needs that are particularly challenging to meet just now.
Upon hearing the World Health Organization report° that a novel coronavirus had caused a respiratory illness in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, I didn’t think it would have much of an effect on me as a GP working in inner city London. How
Professor Joe Rosenthal talks about undergraduate and postgraduate education in general practice. Students have now been withdrawn from all medical placements during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let me introduce myself as the incoming editor of BJGP. What a time to start! Someone must have pressed the fast forward button — our medical world has started spinning at ever increasing speed and seems barely in control. Meanwhile, the rest
Trisha Greenhalgh is Professor of Primary Care Health Science working with the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford. She talks about the evidence around video consultations and how the research can help GPs and nurses consult safely and with