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.
Martin Edwards and Anjna Harrar review this polemical but important book. It is devastatingly critical of the government, its advisors and Public Health England in its analysis of the early months of the COVID-19 crisis in Britain.
Covid-19 has had a major impact on the provision of all health care services. Have Primary Care Networks had a role to play in helping GP practices to adapt? Sarah Parkinson and Judith Smith talked to leaders from four PCNs across England
Are GPs prepared for a future dominated by remote consultations? Ruth Chambers and her colleagues present results from their survey into the effectiveness of learning sets that help GPs to develop their video-consultation skills.
Why is it that risk is perceived differently by different people? During the COVID-19 pandemic there have been largely conflicting responses, both on an individual and national scale. Samar Razaq explores this question in light of the current pandemic and argues that
We are all hoping for a Covid vaccine that works. But even if we get one, will it be that simple? Ramiro Gilardino and Victoria Malek-Pascha consider five critical issues.
It has been well reported that those in the community and end-of-life care have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, but little attention has been given to GPs and district nurses working in end-of-life care and the positive stories they have
Numbers have no voice. We, however, give them meaning. Using numbers we can twist the narrative to suit the point we want to make. Following his spectacular rise on social media Samar Razaq investigates the dark arts of manipulation, politics and statistics.
The Welsh government is introducing prescriptive guidelines regarding access to GPs. Susan Goodfellow and Gareth Thomas examine their wisdom, and explore possible alternatives.
Boris Johnson announced plans to carry out up to 10 million tests in a day to allow people who are negative to be able to continue with their life as normal. This "moonshot" is planned to be financed to the tune of
2020 will be remembered as the year of Covid-19, a global pandemic that has touched the lives of more human beings than any disease in human history. Life around the world began to change.
Not long following the horrors of the Ebola outbreak in 2014, Liberia now faces the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael Bryant, medical director of ELWA hospital in Liberia, describes the day-to-day struggle to provide quality care for patients in an already critically strained healthcare
Simon Morgan reflects on how travel and his travel medicine practice have been derailed in the pandemic.
As the country is gripped by fear of a new pandemic it places doctors and other healthcare workers once again in the spotlight. There is understandable fear amongst the public about the nature of the current pandemic and how it may affect
Louise Stone (@GPswampwarrior) is an Australian GP with clinical, research, teaching and policy expertise in mental health. t would be nice if the world of mental health fell neatly into a taxonomy. It would be nice if we could, as Plato wrote,
Public Health England’s two reviews on disparities in COVID-19 failed to address the significantly higher proportion of ethnic minority healthcare workers who tragically died from COVID-19, and provides no detailed road-map to tackle these inequalities in the future. Reflecting on these uninspiring
The vulnerability and medical complexity of our care home residents means their clinical care is often challenging. However, with the emergence of COVID-19, the scale of this challenge has increased significantly with primary care support becoming predominantly remote and care homes asked
We had to create a monster. A monster so huge, and so terrifying that we were sufficiently motivated. So, we the shielded, are being asked to move from essentially no risk, to an undefinable, unguaranteeable low risk situation. I am immensely thankful
Well-respected epidemiologists predicted, from the outset, that the societal, economic and psychological harm from the unprecedented COVID-19 lockdowns was likely to be far greater than the perceived risk of death. However, such views were lost in the narrative of fear that predominated
Immediate action is needed to consider how we deal with the surge in ‘hot’ paediatric patients this winter. We need to make it clear to parents that GPs and A&E are open for business and create a safe, easily accessible system by
The BJGP has been publishing brief reports on innovations on the BJGP COVID-19 Clinical Solutions rapid communications platform. There are now around 30 reports sharing good practice, new processes, and practical ideas to help improve care during the pandemic.
Navigating the daily deluge of new information relating to COVID-19 is a significant challenge for both patients and professionals. With alarming statistics released regarding the inaccuracy of much of this information, it falls to healthcare professionals to help distinguish credible sources and
Evidence suggests that unemployment is associated with an increase in mortality and morbidity. In light of this evidence, Samar Razaq assesses whether a return to work could help to avoid an even greater disaster during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the COVID-19 pandemic the UK government provided daily briefings, none of which have featured the opinions of behavioural or social scientists. While GPs continue to care for their patients, they must be supported and given the tools to assist their patients
Remote, quick, impersonal, call centre medicine is not general practice. It may work for a subset of patient queries, for minor ailments, but for the rest, understanding the patient's needs, perspectives and priorities as well as the context in which they live
In the current COVID-19 pandemic, many (including world ‘leaders’) have been tempted to abandon the ideas of evidence based medicine of needing clinical trials to justify the use of treatments. This is a mistake.
COVID-19 has all but ensured that primary care will never quite be the same. This includes the way in which we care for our nursing and care homes. It is important that we take the positives from the virtual ward round that
The terrible direct and indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our elders living in care homes demands our attention and clinical scrutiny. We must continue to scrutinise the effectiveness of virtual assessment of our older patients with thorough clinical governance processes.
COVID-19 has forced enormous numbers of workers into working from home and students into remote learning worldwide. The infrared radiation emitted from laptops can cause erythema ab igne. Increasing awareness now may prevent case occurrence or save time and stress later.
The Appointments in General Practice data available on the NHS Digital website collects data on the activity recorded within appointment systems. We cannot rely on the experimental data that has been collected over the last two months, but now that we are
In the UK, people living in the most deprived areas have twice the mortality rate from COVID-19 as those in the least deprived areas. The pandemic offers a 'compassion window' of societal, political and professional awareness and willingness to act, and general
Simon Morgan offers up a second dose of his handy primer on virology to get you up to speed with some of the lesser known facts about viruses and their mitocycles.
As primary care physicians we are likely to have an important part to play in determining who is tested and when. Impressively high sensitivity and specificity numbers, therefore, have to be interpreted with caution. As GPs we need to be aware of
Additional COVID-19 pressures of increased demand and reduced workforce has meant novel solutions have been necessary. We employed medical students, someone from NHS England, and a retail manager. It has been heartening to see others step forward to support general practice.
We must recognise that as clinicians we are involved in creating a new disease. We must be conscious that the way that we communicate symptoms and risk with each other and our patients has wider implications beyond the immediate clinical situation. Our
Back in 1987, Roger Neighbour wrote his seminal textbook The Inner Consultation. Neighbour theorised that the general practice consultation was "a journey, not a destination", and proposed five ‘checkpoints’ along the way. Simon Morgan explores them for the COVID-19 world of remote
Perhaps there is one silver lining to this disaster. Perhaps restriction has stimulated an appetite for change, a desire to be more active and healthy. It seems as though restriction has triggered change, a desire to be more active and healthy.
The coronavirus epidemic has forced GPs to implement remote consultations, minimise face-to-face contacts, keep our distance and put an end to shaking hands. This mandatory distance between doctors and patients, has shown us the importance of touch in our healthcare system.
The publication of this new anthology of poems by NHS staff could not have come at a more apposite time. The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the vital role of the NHS and the dedication of its staff in both community and hospital
Cummings is the third senior figure involved in dealing with the pandemic to have broken the rules, and the fallout has added to the litany of incoherent messaging, opaque decision making and fumbling management that has characterised the handling of the crisis.
A day does not go by where I do not speak to patients suffering from anxiety in one form or the other. The untold harm being done to their mental health does not make the daily evening government briefings. Other health phenomena