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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.

I don’t want to be a call centre GP!

Remote, quick, impersonal, call centre medicine is not general practice. It may work for a subset of patient queries, for minor ailments, but for the rest, understanding the patient's needs, perspectives and priorities as well as the context in which they live
6 July 2020
2 mins read

BLM, population health and policing

The effect of being stopped and searched by the police can be psychologically traumatic and leave one feeling scared, powerless and humiliated. I thought about my patients. A lot of patients I look after are black and I wondered about how negative
2 July 2020
3 mins read

Care home medicine calls for our curiosity

The terrible direct and indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our elders living in care homes demands our attention and clinical scrutiny. We must continue to scrutinise the effectiveness of virtual assessment of our older patients with thorough clinical governance processes.
1 July 2020
2 mins read

Working at home with laptops: watch out for erythema ab igne

COVID-19 has forced enormous numbers of workers into working from home and students into remote learning worldwide. The infrared radiation emitted from laptops can cause erythema ab igne. Increasing awareness now may prevent case occurrence or save time and stress later.
29 June 2020
3 mins read

Poetry in practice

Two GPs reflect on the impact poetry has had on their practice and how it fits into their lives.
28 June 2020
3 mins read

Health inequality and COVID: Two centuries of social murder

Health experts and politicians have warned for over 170 years that health inequality is killing those in the most deprived parts of society. We now witness the poorest in society disproportionately dying of COVID-19, suggesting that the social murder observed by Engels
25 June 2020
3 mins read
1

Putting methotrexate prescribing research into practice

New research published in the BJGP from Dr Ben Goldacre's team in Oxford found that 23% of GPs still prescribed different strength methotrexate tablets (10mg and 2.5mg) to the same person in the past year — against the safety advice. The clear
23 June 2020
2 mins read
1

Interpreting antibody tests with care

As primary care physicians we are likely to have an important part to play in determining who is tested and when. Impressively high sensitivity and specificity numbers, therefore, have to be interpreted with caution. As GPs we need to be aware of
19 June 2020
2 mins read

Contextual safeguarding: what GPs need to know

Contextual safeguarding is a relatively new concept, which is primarily intended for adolescents. Recognising that young people are often exploited and abused outside their family environment, contextual safeguarding focuses on influencing and shaping those areas.
18 June 2020
2 mins read

COVID-19 and racism in the USA

Prof Bill Phillips discusses the two crises in USA, COVID-19 and racism, and the role of family doctors. In Seattle, around 7000 doctors and nurses demonstrated peacefully as part of the White Coats for Black Lives movement.
18 June 2020
1 min read

BAME excess deaths: chronic stress and constant hostility

Everyone of us in the health service has overheard unacceptable rudeness, sly put-downs, exclusion or smiling say-the-opposite-of what-you-mean British insincerity. We need to acknowledge that it is happening. There is no mysterious genetic or melanin fault causing excess deaths among health workers
16 June 2020
2 mins read
2

Here is how New Zealand was so successful with COVID-19

Professor Felicity Goodyear-Smith outlines how New Zealand have done so well. They are a small isolated island nation and didn't leave it another week. A lot of testing seems to be key. Like everywhere, there were challenges in general practice with dramatic
15 June 2020
1 min read

Workforce changes and opportunities during COVID-19

Additional COVID-19 pressures of increased demand and reduced workforce has meant novel solutions have been necessary. We employed medical students, someone from NHS England, and a retail manager. It has been heartening to see others step forward to support general practice.
15 June 2020
2 mins read

COVID-19 and the creation of a new disease

We must recognise that as clinicians we are involved in creating a new disease. We must be conscious that the way that we communicate symptoms and risk with each other and our patients has wider implications beyond the immediate clinical situation. Our
12 June 2020
2 mins read
6

Pride and prejudice in the NHS

How much does it take for us to genuinely express sorrow and compassion for the terrible trials our patients endure? We have pride in the NHS but we have prejudice too. Perhaps it is the NHS clinician that is Icarus, flying too
11 June 2020
3 mins read

The absurd general practitioner

An individual working as a GP runs the risk of becoming an automaton. Evidence-based medicine and professional standardisation contribute to uniformity and by definition a reduction in diversity. Camus says that “if the world were clear, art would not exist” and I
10 June 2020
3 mins read

Workload in general practice in Ireland

Dr Brendan Crosbie talks about his real time data workload survey in Ireland. He found that GPs worked 9.9 hours per day on average and one-third of that time is on non-clinical work. One in 10 GPs work until after 10pm in
4 June 2020
1 min read

Predicting hospitalisation in the homeless

Catherine Himsworth discusses the findings of her research in people who are homeless. The trimorbidity of homelessness – chronic disease, mental health problems, and substance misuse –increased fourfold the risk of unplanned hospital admissions.
2 June 2020
1 min read

Trust Me I’m a Millennial GP

As a 20-something millennial GP trainee, the sudden talk about the future of primary care is exciting. I once heard a futurologist say, “Don’t ask ‘what will it look like down line?’ ask ‘what do you want it to look like?’” I
1 June 2020
3 mins read

Sheffield GPs and their contact tracing scheme

Dr Mike Tomson tells us about a community-based contact tracing initiative he helped set up in Sheffield. Numbers were small in this pilot but their experience with index cases and their contacts highlights the challenges and barriers in contact tracing.
1 June 2020
1 min read

COVID-19: hard lessons

Cummings is the third senior figure involved in dealing with the pandemic to have broken the rules, and the fallout has added to the litany of incoherent messaging, opaque decision making and fumbling management that has characterised the handling of the crisis.
29 May 2020
4 mins read
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