As both an academic GP and faith leader, I've found that bringing together different knowledge systems can significantly enhance patient care and community engagement. It may offer fresh perspectives for today's healthcare challenges.
Sadiq introduces the combination of both conditions, presenting the ‘shared and distinct features of autism and ADHD’ which he suggests ‘originate from separate yet intertwined pathways’.
The recent introduction of the UK’s first Drug Consumption Room (DCR) in Glasgow is a pioneering harm reduction initiative, offering hope for improved healthcare outcomes for some of the city’s most vulnerable populations. Paul McNamara and Faiza Ahmad discuss the benefits.
As general practice increasingly offers ‘digital-first’ models, it is vital we ask: who are we leaving behind?
If the only reason a doctor labels symptoms as psychosomatic is that they can’t come up with a better explanation, they might as well blame the fairies at the bottom of the garden... Ben Hoban will make you think!
...not only will you get a better appreciation of society as a whole, you will also understand better where you find yourself within that society.
Clinical courage is a term that has emerged in the field of rural general practice, particularly in Canada and Australia. Caroline McCarthy reflects on how it manifested for her.
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the care of people with learning disability have grown alongside each other - Peter Linday argues that they now must come together for the benefit of all.
In a data-driven healthcare system, the accuracy of clinical and non-clinical values, as well as diagnostic coding entered into records, is crucial for delivering appropriate and timely care. A cautionary case study inviting audit and discussion.
Adolescence brought home, quite literally, the reality of the potential dangers of modern life in a digital world. It not only made me reflect on how technology might be shaping my children; but on what implications will it have for clinical practice.
There is still so much stigma and invisibility around pregnancy loss. Patients are often encouraged to “move on.” Clinicians are often too afraid of saying the wrong thing—so they say nothing at all.
Clovis Faggion Junior explores the economic motivations behind the continued application of enteral feeding in patients with advanced dementia, proposing that various stakeholders may have financial or logistical incentives to sustain this practice despite limited medical benefits.
Elke Hausmann proposes a way of looking at Long Covid and ME that might engender a better understanding in GPs for patients living with these devastating and life changing conditions.
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.
O'Sullivan and others fail to recognise the likelihood that most Long Covid patients will have already tried psychological and behavioural approaches ... the idea that there might be issues that, if addressed, could cure you, is the only thing we have left.
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.
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
Obesity and maintaining a healthy weight are more complicated than excess calories and a lack of exercise. Too often, we are at the mercy of a complex interplay between our genes, personal health matters, the food we eat, the behaviour of those
"Many general practitioners consider spirituality to be relevant to their patients’ health and important to primary care. However, our research showed that a number of GPs worry that addressing this issue is unscientific." Alistair Appleby offers 4 approaches.
With high infection rates and the prevalence of numerous demotivating influences on vaccine uptake, a programme which focusses on negating the controllable barrier of inaccessibility is essential, argue Paul McNamara and Scott Wylie.
"As a GP, I had many patients who told me how lucky they were to be so well in old age. My response was always the same — that they were not lucky but had looked after themselves, mainly by keeping very
"I am struck by how Eder pursued three passions – socialism, Zionism and psychoanalysis – that were all cutting edge causes for most progressive people in his time but have largely diverged from each other since then and become contested or marginalised."
"The Music and Mental Health Project [aims] to sensitise family physicians, other health professionals and managers, as well as patients and their families, to the transformative power of music as a tool for care in psychosocial suffering."
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.
Compassionate care helps us stay connected through our feelings and actions to the human aspect of medicine. And when that feeling is lost, it degrades our sense of who we are as clinicians. Nada Khan considers diagnoses and treatments for compassion fatigue.
Paul McNamara and Khalid Abdalla reflect on sauna therapy for the treatment of chronic disease.
Martyn Hewett and Paquita De Zulueta consider some of the changes that would need to be introduced to safeguard against the most prominent ethical difficulties arising from a change in the law on physician assisted dying.
This challenges the notion that clinical interactions should be structured according to a strict division between diagnosing disease and understanding the patient’s broader illness experience.
In the same way there is an unsettling parallel in the rise of obesity and ultra-processed food from the 1970’s onwards, the rise of faster and more invasive digital technology seems to link with a decline in mental health. Giles Dawnay discusses
What exactly is this smell of poverty? It is so pervasive. I recognise it in an instance. This perfume should be called “Deep End”, and it gives every encounter with poverty a visceral olfactory dimension. Jen Foell reflects.
If it is difficult to agree what exactly we mean by health, it is perhaps unsurprising that we also approach unhealth in a number of different ways. Ben Hoban reflects on the meanings of 'unhealth.'
A recent House of Lords report puts the blame for rising obesity squarely at the feet of the food industry, stating that marketing of unhealthy food products has created an ‘obesogenic’ food environment. Nada Khan investigates the broken food system.
Despite the legal and professional requirements to treat individuals with SpLDs without disadvantage, alongside evidence supporting earlier diagnosis & supportive strategies, the Committee of General Practice Education Directors (COGPED) still do not recommend screening of GP Registrars (GPRs) at the commencement of
"I have often relied on John Driscroll’s three ‘Whats’ when giving feedback on BJGP Life submissions and undergraduate coursework: What happened? So what? What now? I invite you to keep these questions in your head as you survey our articles. How will
Perhaps we can characterise these two kinds of practice as representing either efficiency in providing a high volume of appointments or effectiveness in making each appointment count for more... Ben Hoban reflects.
Primary care has been identified as the stage in the skin cancer pathway with the greatest potential for the use of AI to increase early detection. Richard Armitage raises some issues.
How far have family doctor organisations around the world progressed in protecting planetary health?
The theme for World Family Doctor Day on May 19, 2024, was “Healthy Planet, Healthy People”. To mark this, the World Organisation of Family Doctors’ (WONCA) Working Party on Planetary Health surveyed its 133 member organizations (MOs) across 111 countries. Terry Temple and colleagues
The thread that runs through the debate, however, seems to be a genuine desire on both sides to help people who are suffering, and the conflict between opposing views reflects not a greater or lesser degree of care, but rather the familiar
Doctors are repeatedly referred to in the proposed legislation, and they are clearly essential in delivering the assisted dying process, but has anyone really considered the impact on those doctors? GPs are arguably the most likely profession to provide assisted dying services,
By recognizing the fundamental similarities in our approaches, we can move beyond semantic battles and focus on what truly matters: genuine connection, active listening, and meaningful support for patients.