"This book is terrifying, informative, stimulating, and educating to every member of the medical and nursing profession. It is extensively researched, has a massive bibliography, and, most importantly, it is well written and well worth reading — in spite of some truly
Surely, medicine has advanced greatly over the last 50 years? David Zigmond asks what have we lost in the relentless tide towards ever-greater specialisation and packaged healthcare.
In June 2020, the RCGP published a statement of solidarity acknowledging the enduring problem of structural racism and recognising the need for change in the form of tangible action. Julia Darko explores the problems and offers a practical way forward.
Have rapid recent advances in IT, and the necessary Covid restrictions, rendered traditional face-to-face medical consultations largely redundant? David Zigmond shares two views on this and leaves us in no doubt about his own conclusions.
2020 has at least seen us start to tear down the weeds and thorns of racist power structures within our society and our profession. Roghieh Dehghan asks whether we have yet grasped the roots, and shows us how we might move forward
2020 has been a grim year for patients and doctors alike. As we approach 2021, weary but hoping now to put our efforts into a mass vaccination program, John Travers, a GP registrar in Dublin, gives us his personal reflection on the
We always knew that there was something a little bit magical about Roger Neighbour. Natasha Houghton and her colleagues explain all.
Can pottering in the greenhouse mitigate against the toxic impact of work related stress upon our brains? Jane Roberts examines the evidence.
2020 has been a distressing year for UK doctors for many reasons. John Frey reminds us that it's no better across the pond.
'Assessing the danger had simply involved walking up to a mannequin’s bedside on an ILS course and stating, “I have looked around the patient and cannot see anything dangerous”.' However, Charles Slater, then a medical student, found that in real life things
Not another article about Shipman? But 20 years on David Zigmond's reflections on the man who contaminated our medical world for ever suggest worthwhile new insights. Read on...
A New Indian Express editorial read “Can one person change the world? Ask Andrew Wakefield”. Peter Lindsay reviews "The Doctor who fooled the world" by Brian Deer Scribe, and reflects on the damage caused by Wakefield's career.
Claire Vicary gives a very personal account of her year with bowel cancer. There was more to getting better than she had realised......
In the UK, at the centre of our crucial battle against Covid-19s, our NHS has been, lionised and eulogised in heroic terms. But David Zigmond questions whether this recent praise for NHS staff in fact covers up a longstanding malaise, the destabilising
The COVID 19 pandemic has resulted in a dramatic shift from face- to-face to remote consulting within general practice. But how will this impact ongoing patient care? Victoria Tzortziou Brown, Simon Gregory and Denis Pereira Gray examine the evidence.
As doctors we are committed to justice and an end to discrimination. So surely sex discrimination in medicine is a thing of the past? These four medical students from Kings are not so sure.
We are embodied social beings. We thrive on nurturing relationships. Touch forms a key part of those relationships in everyday life but is also a powerful form of communication for clinicians, allowing for wordless dialogue, presence and embodied empathy. Paquita de Zulueta
Claire Stillman is a recently retired GP who spent 30 years in Scottish general practice, the last 20 of which were in Glasgow. bout eight months ago I wrote an emotional, angry rant about why I was leaving general practice. It was
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. This week I recalled a study day that I went to some years ago. Suitably interactive, involving a variety of teaching styles and fully addressing a personally relevant learning need, it was the best
David Zigmond was a small practice GP in south London 1977-2016. Read Obituary for St James Church Surgery: the death of a practice. Can we have value for money and not lose our humanity? Our lives lengthen, our population increases, our expectations
Julian Marsden has been a GP in Luton for 33 years. He is FRCGP, Provost of the Beds & Herts Faculty, and is a retired Training Programme Director for the Luton GPSTP I’ve been a GP for over 30 years, but I
Recent advances in genetic mapping herald some dramatically positive developments in hi tech healthcare. Yet this is paralleled by unprecedented ailing demoralisation and alienation within the service that will deliver these. How do we explain this discrepancy? What can we expect?
Dr Stanley Jeffs is a retired GP who has made regular contributions to the College Journal. He is now 90 years old. His first article, An Epidemic of Lumbago, was published in 1961. You can download and read it from our archives here.
Professor John Frey III is now retired from the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine and Community Health but is still an active teacher, research collaborator, journal editor and ‘faculty whisperer’ about career transitions at all stages of professional life (a
