BJGP Long Read – Page 2

Health equity in a new key: reimagining primary health care through justice

Inequity is not a glitch—it’s the system working as designed. Health disparities persist not from ignorance, but by design. Health and justice are not parallel struggles—they are one. In primary health care, we hold both front lines.

25 September 2025

6 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Information exchange, consciousness, and different worldviews in the consultation

The interaction is no longer about extraction or the one-sided gathering of facts, but about fostering shared understanding -a tapestry woven together from many threads of memory, belief, context, and hope. This is not an easy path...

24 September 2025

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Book review

Beautiful Lives: How we got learning disabilities so wrong, by Stephen Unwin

The book presents a critique of our current care of people with learning disability and how it can be improved. Stephen Unwin has written a textbook, a manual and a guide that GPs and their institutions would do well to adopt.

20 September 2025

7 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

The Power of Self-Compassion

Though it might seem soft or understated there is a quiet power in practicing self-compassion. Maiedha Raza explains.

18 September 2025

3 mins read

1

BJGP Long Read·Coronavirus·International·Opinion

Shaking hands again

"We tended to turn door knobs with our elbow or to press elevator’s buttons using our house keys. As time passes, these somehow obsessive behaviours have been gradually abated, but I feel some subconscious concern still remains. In my personal experience, I

17 September 2025

3 mins read

3

BJGP Long Read·International·Opinion

Treating doctor-patients and work colleagues: a need for some international principles

The treatment of one’s self, family and colleagues and being a physician-patient are aspects of clinical practice that are often not taught in medical schools or during residency training. Saud Jukaku, Fahad Wali Ahmed, Abdul Elah Almutairi and Taimur Butt offer some

12 September 2025

6 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Improving healthcare for marginalised communities: A call from GPs for business involvement

Poor health in marginalised communities leads to greater healthcare costs, a less productive workforce, and a more fragile economy. Kamilla Kamaruddin argues that businesses have a positive role to play.

11 September 2025

5 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Slim hopes: Who really benefits from the obesity wonder drugs?

Drugs like semaglutide may support weight loss and may reduce the burden of obesity-related disease. But obesity is a complex, multifactorial condition. Paul McNamara and Ruth Somers offer a Scottish experience perspective.

10 September 2025

5 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion·Stories

Epistemic injustice: a tale of how not to be heard in general practice

But still, I have a nice paper with my name on, which still gets cited from time to time. Just don’t come crying to me if you don’t know what to do with your patient on a wet Friday afternoon when their

8 September 2025

3 mins read

AiT·BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Caring for my grandmother: A resident doctor’s personal experience of end-of-life caregiving in the community

Many have discussed the challenges informal caregivers face with end-of-life care in the community... By recounting my experience, I hope to add further insight from the perspective of a resident doctor acting in this role.

5 September 2025

6 mins read

1

BJGP Long Read·Stories

Encounters with three remarkable women

"Although I knew so little about them at the time I met them, it now feels an extraordinary privilege to have encountered these three remarkable women." A slice of memoir from John Launer

4 September 2025

4 mins read

Arts·BJGP Long Read·Book review·Stories

To Exist as I am. A Doctor’s Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance. By Grace Spence Green

What really hit me was her crushing critique of the corrosive stories we tell about illness, disability and healing, and the unarguable (but so often sidelined) power of empathy and kindness in healthcare. And even after 30 years as a GP, I

23 August 2025

5 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Still in the room: When AI Knows the answers, what will we bring?

The future doctor may be less the sole expert and more a kind of relational anchor—someone grounded in science but unshaken by challenge, open to ideas from patient, family, colleague, or algorithm.

22 August 2025

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

Greener General Practice isn’t a luxury – It’s an urgent responsibility

Over the past year, I took part in a sustainability fellowship, with a main focus on implementing the Green Impact for Health Toolkit. I found that the toolkit fostered better patient outcomes, team morale and community engagement, and saved money.

21 August 2025

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

General practice in a ‘Fit for the Future’, net zero NHS

The UK’s Government’s Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England reaffirms the NHS’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2040. We should explore how the Plan’s key proposals interface with the wider goals of healthcare sustainability and climate

18 August 2025

5 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion·Stories

Home is where the heart is?

I'd spoken to so many residents on the phone but I hadn't ever quite got the picture of what the living conditions were like. I did now. The poor chests that never truly recovered from antibiotics, the perennial mental health difficulties -

16 August 2025

4 mins read

2

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Knowledge, wisdom, and following the blue line

...it is often difficult to know in the middle of a consultation how to bridge the gap between the abstract certainties of current best practice and the needs of our patients, which are at once more concrete, more personal, and usually harder

14 August 2025

4 mins read

Arts·BJGP Long Read·Opinion

What does the fallout from the ‘Salt Path’ saga tell us about our society’s ideas about chronic illness and exercise?

The premise of 'The Salt Path' is that a couple is blamelessly made homeless, at the same time as the husband is diagnosed with a 'terminal condition', after which they decide to walk the South West Coast Path, and with doing that

12 August 2025

7 mins read

5

BJGP Long Read·Opinion·Research

Yonder: physicians’ end of life care preferences, diagnostic labels, electronic health record interoperability, opioid prescriptions

This months selection includes: physicians' end of life care preferences, diagnostic labels, electronic health record interoperability, opioid prescriptions

11 August 2025

3 mins read

Arts·BJGP Long Read·Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

Teaching Medicine with Poetry

The power that this poetic language can have in teaching is often in the endings that provide moral or philosophical reflections on illness which is the “kicker” or message that you want to leave with the student. There is now an extensive literature

8 August 2025

5 mins read

1

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

The double-edged sword: AI Scribes in an overstretched NHS

"One figure that stood out for me was that "AI scribes will end the need for clinical notetaking … (and) can save the same time as adding 2,000 more doctors into general practice..." Shier Ziser Dawood suggest the buyer should beware.

5 August 2025

5 mins read

3

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Kieran Sweeney Prize winner 2025: The GP model for delivery of Primary Care is outdated for the society in 2025

Is it? We need a balanced healthcare system that can operate in both scientific and interpersonal modes, the left hand working with the right. Without general practice, primary care would simply be a community-based form of hospital medicine. We should aspire to

4 August 2025

7 mins read

1

BJGP Long Read·Opinion·Stories

A GP at 10: An invitation to celebrate public service

"The vagueness, of course, only added to the mystery. Why had I been invited?" Joshua Nivern reflects on being invited to 10 Downing Street.

31 July 2025

6 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Book review

Book review: Searching for Normal: A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress and Neurodiversity

"In our ‘mindful’ generation, we have seen a rise in mental health awareness and a burgeoning focus on wellbeing. Yet rates of mental illnesses are still skyrocketing. Where have we gone wrong? In this provocative book, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist Sami

30 July 2025

8 mins read

1

BJGP Long Read·Clinical·International

The Planned Treatment Scheme (S2 funding): an alternative to long NHS waiting lists or private care

"The Planned Treatment Scheme (S2 funding route) enables eligible patients to access NHS funding for planned medical treatment in the state healthcare system of an EU country, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein. Unfortunately, there seems to be limited awareness of the S2

29 July 2025

7 mins read

2

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Long Covid and the body: can we move beyond judgements?

Elke Hausmann wants to discuss how we understand the body, and how that can leave patients with Long Covid at the receiving end of judgements. She argues that we need to put judgements aside, and develop an approach that sees the body

24 July 2025

15 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

On not being paternalistic

...maybe thinking of ourselves as being maternalistic acknowledges existing authority, and allows us to aim for our patients to thrive, to be in control of their destinies, guided by caring, wise professionals.

21 July 2025

2 mins read

Arts·BJGP Long Read

Between inner sound and spoken word: Reflections on jazz, silence, and the unfolding art of the consultation

Jazz, like the consultation, is a practice fundamentally shaped by silence, listening, and shared creation. Marcus Lewis reflects on how he uses Jazz for general practice and GP education.

19 July 2025

14 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

The clinician’s narrative and the patient’s narrative are ontologically equivalent

According to Miranda Fricker, epistemic injustice occurs when an individual is wronged in their capacity as a knower. Yuya Yokota argues that argue that Gabriel's concept of “fields of sense” reveals this to be not just an ethical failing but an ontological

18 July 2025

3 mins read

2

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

On a knife edge in Scotland – A view from the deep end

An outbreak of violence is spreading across Scotland - not linked to gangs or organised crime. This time, the offenders are children. To stop this surge, Scotland must urgently invest in mental health services, youth programs, and community resources...

17 July 2025

5 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Clinical·Opinion

Should we be bothered that we are losing a QOF indicator for people with SMI?

This focus on cardiovascular risk is understandable, but it is not clear why the requirement to maintain a register of people with SMI has been removed, other than possibly to free up financial resources.

15 July 2025

4 mins read

1

BJGP Long Read·Clinical·Opinion

ADHD – Overdiagnosis or Opportunity?

The inherent co-occurrence of multiple physical and mental health disorders associated with neurodivergence underscores the need for a broad, holistic clinical lens in assessment. This presents a crucial opportunity for primary care...

14 July 2025

5 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Clinical·Opinion

Pain management in rehabilitation: A call for integrated, patient-centred approaches

Effective pain management is fundamental to rehabilitation. The body cannot heal while in constant distress. Rehabilitation and primary care teams must embrace the reality that pain is not just a symptom to be medicated...

10 July 2025

4 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Technology and values in general practice

The real question is not whether AI can make GPs more efficient, but whether it can uphold the artisanal values of general practice at a time when efficiency seems to be all that matters.

9 July 2025

5 mins read

Arts·BJGP Long Read·Opinion·Undergraduate

The Fall of Icarus: Using art to teach medical students about planetary health

Using art can help students connect a patient's condition to the broader impacts of planetary health ... GPs should encourage students to examine this remarkable situation, even if others decide it is easier to look away.

5 July 2025

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Bright Ideas and Innovation

Embedding sustainability in primary care practice: Reflections on the Green Impact for Health Toolkit in City and Hackney

In 2024-25, 29 GP practices in London's City and Hackney were incentivised to engage with greener practice. Mareeni Raymond hopes that readers will see that greener practice is achievable and that good practice can be shared.

4 July 2025

4 mins read

BJGP Long Read·News·Opinion

Women GPs and the NHS Ten-Year Plan: Is now the time to thrive?

The manifesto details concrete actions for individuals, organisations and the government to help retain women doctors. This manifesto comes at an important time, as we await the NHS Ten Year Plan.

3 July 2025

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·News·Opinion

A 10-Year Health Plan that puts patients first: the RCGP’s vision

The Government has already set out three key shifts for the plan to turn into reality: from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. These are laudable, but we need to ensure that they're backed up with action and

2 July 2025

5 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Devalued: The financial erosion of the GP role

GPs across the UK are facing a decline in income, with the impact felt across all contractual roles. This stagnation and decline in GP pay is exacerbating already-significant pressures and declining morale across the profession.

25 June 2025

5 mins read

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

An Ode to my first practice … Let it not be an elegy to my profession

Here is a group of GPs who have given their all for their patients, and the reward has been disillusionment and financial decimation. This is not just a personal tragedy; it is a warning about the future of primary care in the

24 June 2025

3 mins read

1

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BJGP Long Read - Page 2