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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.

It is time we talk about the duties of a patient

"... while patients' rights have been well-defined, the corresponding duties of a patient are rarely articulated [...] Just as doctors must adhere to professional standards, patients should be expected to fulfil certain duties — to themselves, healthcare professionals, the health system, society,
24 April 2025
5 mins read
1

Unfurling

Not the landlocked, shuffling prison. Even acid-green woggled she’s beautiful in the water, looser. Untangled. A poem.
15 April 2025
1 min read
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Fight or Flight

‘Trauma is patient, doc, if it's one thing I've learnt.’ His pale green eyes fix on mine dark pupils with an infinity of space. A poem by Giles Dawnay
10 April 2025
1 min read
2

How long does general practice take?

"... to my surprise, I’ve become the sort of doctor that has been in the same clinic for 20 years. I’ve never been bored, I’ve often been anxious, and I’ve been privileged to witness some of the most amazing and some of the
8 April 2025
2 mins read
1
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Access to general practice

The Health Foundation has recently identified that the public’s first big priority across the NHS is to make it easier to get an appointment at their GP practice. Nada Khan explores what meaningful access looks like in general practice.
7 April 2025
6 mins read
1
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What is Illness?

Peter Toon considers how public debates inform why we define a condition as illness rather than another type of problem, and the implications of this.
4 April 2025
10 mins read
3
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Getting an upgrade

Taking a look at her consultation model feels like the least painful of her goals to try and get done, and so she takes hold of the flaking metal handrail, slowly breathes in and out to centre herself, and walks down the
3 April 2025
4 mins read
2

The familiar and strange art of diagnosis

Diagnosis ... provides structure to a narrative of dysfunction, or a picture of disarray, and imposes official order, sorting out the real from the imagined, the valid from the feigned, the significant from the insignificant ... In Life and Times this month
28 March 2025
3 mins read
1

Clocks

"Something's gotta get me 
I guess, her elder wisdom smiles. Digging for one thing,
 we unearthed another." A poem by Giles Dawnay
12 March 2025
1 min read
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Narrative failure

Something shifted in my head, and I heard the sound of a penny dropping in a bank vault deep underground. I rummaged around in my desk for the Campbell-Frank Analyser and applied the scalp electrodes and mask with trembling hands.
10 March 2025
4 mins read
1
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Illusions of control

Ponder this: The causal link between our actions and any outcome may be dubious, but the relief we feel at having done something, especially when there is an improvement of some kind, is so strongly reinforcing that we tend to ignore this.
7 March 2025
5 mins read
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