Richard Armitage's reading about Chalmers’ proposal of two distinct Problems (the capital is deliberate) of consciousness sparked an analogy in the domain of human health...
In this episode, we talk to Dr Mark Levy about preventable deaths from asthma.
Will using a PPI increase my patient’s risk of dementia? I wouldn’t honestly know the answer offhand if a patient came to me asking this question clutching their newspaper. What are the tensions between the media and scientists, and the implications for
Thinking, Fast and Slow is a detailed summary of much of Kahneman’s influential work spanning numerous academic disciplines which has real-world impact across various professional and personal domains. Richard Armitage explores Its relevance to general practice.
General Practice or Primary Care. What is the difference? Howie, Freeman and Heath discuss the development of primary care research and education and the the rise of SAPC in 2000.
Medicine for Beginners, a short, paradoxical and provocative book was written forty years ago by two young authors with no formal training in history or philosophy. Yet their prophetic insight should continue to disturb us.
'In medical education; those with less support needs have better training environments, while those who are most in need of support end up training in the most challenging, deprived areas.' Frances Wedgwood reflects on a plausible narrative.
As we embrace digitalisation and adapt to changing legislative frameworks, healthcare professionals must redouble their commitment to safeguarding and supporting survivors of DA. Only by aligning with the new legal framework and embracing advancements in practice can we truly meet the needs
In this episode, we talk to Dr Lynsey Warwick-Giles about PCNs, funding and inequalities.
Rather than taking an approach to a patient that they are either telling the truth or lying, we suggest it can be helpful to consider a middle way: the patient may be faithfully describing a problem, but doing so in a coded
10 years was the gap Monica Ali took between her last novel and the release of Love Marriage in 2022. Ironically, this is the same amount of time it would take to go through medical school and train to be a qualified
...At last GPs could receive direct reimbursement from the NHS for time taken for teaching, allowing accelerating expansion of clinical placements in General Practice. At the same time there was NHS support for additional clinical academic staff in the Departments allowing research
The Government’s spending decisions are changing the way we live and the sort of society we live in. The future looks bleak. If you want to understand how it all works (or does not work) then this 280-page explainer will give you
...illness is something normal, to be borne while the pendulum swings that way in expectation that it will soon swing back again. Most of the time, it does, and it is easy for us to claim credit as doctors, even though we
In this episode, we talk to Dr Sahar Pahlavanyali about continuity and mortality in a Norwegian study.
There’s a real risk often voiced by GPs that using Google will make them look stupid in front of the patient, and while there is evidence this can happen, especially with younger patients, it’s often not as bad as we think ...
John Howie, George Freeman and Heather Heath introduce an archive that traces the development of General Practice as a university-based academic discipline in the UK
Paul was diagnosed with locally advanced cancer in 2019. Paul was under no illusion about his prognosis and from an early point he openly discussed what his future was likely to hold .He set out very clearly what was most important to
Biological causality for T4 monotherapy not working for some is now established. We can’t now attribute the 10%–15% of people with hypothyroidism not feeling better on T4 as wimps, laggards, or requiring psychological attention. Sarah Cathcart Evans reflects from personal experience of
In this episode, we talk to Dr Zoe Anchor about the ARRS in practice.
The Eisenhower matrix is an eponymous task management tool attributed to the late US President which helps to organise and prioritise tasks by urgency and importance, so you can focus on getting the most urgent and important things done first. So, am
There’s much to be said for novellas – short novels you can read in a couple of evenings, without the commitment needed for a blockbuster. If you’re looking for a great example, I’d recommend The Shooting Party by the Russian dramatist Anton
'It has been a hard week.' Poetry by Terese Tubman
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
There has been significant debate recently around how best to name the newest healthcare profession to seek regulation under the umbrella of the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Cathal Gallagher reflects on the legality of the title 'Doctor'.
In this episode, we talk to Dr Lucy Potter about a co-production approach to reducing access issues in general practice.
The Lancet recently published a series on the menopause. GPs are consulting with large numbers of women around this time of life and will no doubt welcome a major medical journal addressing an area of rising need. Ellen Fellows argues that there
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
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,
I have recently read ‘Too Many Pills - How too much medicine is endangering our health and what we can do about it’ by James Le Fanu... So, this is my new purpose in life - to create opportunities to have open,
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.
We're taking a break for Easter, but we'll be back on 9 April.
My husband and I visited my ancestral village home in the state of Bihar. I was visiting my village after 25 years and could see the obvious changes – both the progress and ongoing challenges.
It used to be just in the context of type 1 diabetes, but the little white circles on people’s upper arms seem to be more ubiquitous, and it’s clear that the use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is shifting from a medical
Nick Wooding offers some football-inspired reflections on good general practice as a team sport.
In this episode, we talk to Dr Miranda Pallan about how to address child weight issues in the consultation.
Alex Burrell thanks Ahmed Rashid, and takes in papers on email consultations, ethics rounds, and medical elective fees
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
"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
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