In 2020, Sir Michael Marmot and his team at the Institute of Health Equity published ‘Build Back Fairer’ to examine how the Covid pandemic affected health inequalities in England. Nada Khan discuss a grim but inspiring document.
Jeremy W Tankel discusses how previously successful approaches to telephone and in person GP consultations are proving problematic in the COVID-19 era - what's the answer?
Richard Armitage discusses the interaction of battlefront conditions and COVID-19 in Ukraine
Trish Greenhalgh reviews a book intended as a supplement to the clinical care offered in specialist long covid clinics.
Emma Ladds reflects on being 'at home' as a GP, in response to a bunch of tulips and an article in a national newspaper
Richard Armitage observes that demand for emergency contraception in England post lockdown has public health implications
Vasumathy Sivarajasingam argues that improving healthcare for healthcare workers might improve the overall healthcare service as well as the welfare and morale of those who work for it
Peter Toon reflects on registering overseas vaccinations in the UK and asks if there are lessons for the NHS as a whole
Kath Brown argues that although Covid has exposed our long-standing domestic drivers of poor health, we simply cannot ignore global health inequalities during a global pandemic. Vaccinating the world also in all of our interests.
Satpal Shekhawat reflects on the problems of an exhausted primary care workforce facing no let-up in workload. Is there a leadership-based solution?
Maria Victoria Bovo and John Launer give an account of a remarkable conversation they had in December 2021 during an online workshop in narrative medicine, about Long-COVID and a colleague.
Peter Toon reflects that removal of mandatory isolation will mean that those who have COVID take on the ethical responsibility for the protection of others. It's complicated...
Basem Saab and colleagues from the American University of Beirut illustrate the complexity of COVID-19 requirements and air-travel, for which patients may attend their family doctor for advice and documentation.
Jason Heath, Sangeetha Sornalingam, and Max Cooper highlight the problems the #newnormal is causing to medical education and argue that recognition of this effect is needed before there is lasting damage to the future of the medial profession
Louise Hyde argues that we could be doing a lot more to protect children from COVID in the UK
Gwenllian Wynne-Jones and Carolyn Chew-Graham outline the societal and personal impacts of supporting people back to work, and the effective role of primary care in the UK
Richard Armitage takes a critical look at the shift to offering more urgent than planned general practice appointments, and finds it is a complicated trade off between competing priorities
Arthur Kaufman reflects on intergenerational tensions from the older British citizen's perspective. It is easy to see these being implicit or even explicit in the consultation.
Richard Armitage argues that COVID-19 booster campaigns are a golden opportunity for health promotion, which could decrease COVID-19 effects and have wide benefits as well. Commissioners take note!
GPs have important roles of backstop and referral, and continuity of care for patients with long-covid. Nicola Spiers reviews the current evidence.
What can we do about Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy? James Bailey and his colleagues report on the outcome of their initiative in an East London Practice.
Armna Ali reflects on her experience as a GP during Covid...... and what happened when the clapping stopped......
"Long Covid" presents as a constellation of symptoms that are debilitating, persistent and unexplained, often limiting patients' day-to-day activities. David Thompson and his colleagues describe a novel approach - the Optimal Health Programme - which they are now trialing for this condition.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a particularly heavy toll on care homes in the UK. Two GPs share their own personal experiences working in this environment over the past year, and dive deep into the data.
Boris Johnson tells us we have to “learn to live with Covid”. There is much talk of using “common sense” but Peter Toon reminds us this is not all that common and discusses some of the issues involved.
We might be tempted to think it's the beginning of the end of the Covid19 pandemic. But it's only the beginning of the beginning of the Long Covid pandemic. Carter Singh discusses the issues we need to face.
How can we support people with long-COVID to return to work? Ira Madan and colleagues review the current literature and guidance from the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians.
The travelling community has historically struggled to achieve equal access to healthcare. They have a higher prevalence of disease, lower literacy rates, poor health education and are burdened with significant rates of poverty. So what does this mean during the current pandemic?
The pre-pandemic ‘old normal’ had been broken for a long time. Rather than seeking to develop a ‘new normal’ we should perhaps focus on creating a ‘new different’. 'How?', I hear you ask! Well ...
The UK national quarantines for Covid-19 are the first for any infectious disease for over 140 years. Edward Reynolds questions their effectiveness, and asks why a previously effective system of public health in the UK was effectively dismantled.
Our special series: General Practice after Covid-19. What have our colleagues said? Here are links to all of the articles.
Rachel Lightfoot, a medical student at Trinity College, Dublin, shares her experience of hope as she takes her part in a local vaccination clinic.
John Travers reminds us that we are taking part in a miracle. "That is how a dragon is felled, one tiny jab at a time."
We live in extraordinary and historic times. Maxwell Cooper reminds us that we must ensure that the phenomenal achievements of general practice during this pandemic in delivering vaccination - alongside patient care - are never forgotten.
Balancing individual freedom with public health interests and the economy remains a delicate and fraught endeavour. However, Carmen Schmechel and her colleagues remind us that there is nothing new under the sun.......
The burden of the COVID-19 pandemic has been shouldered by the most vulnerable. Far from being the great equaliser, the pandemic has simply exacerbated health and social inequalities for the homeless. Jatinder Hayre calls us all to action to find practical solutions
A recent report by SAGE suggests high rates of vaccine hesitancy in Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups. The reasons underlying a higher degree of vaccine hesitancy in such communities are complex and varied. Julia Darko helps us to understand and navigate the
Patients being treated for cancer during the Covid-19 pandemic face a double challenge. Feryad Hussain talks us through the issues and suggests the best ways to help.
COVID-19 is bad enough. And we know there will be a mountain of clearing up to do later. Richard Armitage tells us about the impact of the pandemic on rheumatology referrals from general practice in England.
There is a growing realisation that Long-COVID can also occur in children, with numerous physical symptoms and emotional consequences. NHS England now recognises that Long COVID in children needs urgent evaluation, and as GPs we need to help children and their parents