Most developed countries have increasingly diverse populations. This context presents a challenge to empathic healthcare, as well as an opportunity. Better communication, treating diversity as an opportunity, and formal training in empathy and diversity can help transform diversity from a potential barrier
Although the doctor-patient relationship works in favour of promoting healing, it may not be sufficient.
With climate change resulting in increasing temperatures all around the world, what exactly does heat do to our cells and vital organs?
Richard Armitage argues that the abuse or neglect of nuclear facilities in conflict settings represents an international public health concern
There are three levels of general practice: generalist practice approach, general generalist practice and expert generalist practice. Koki Kato explains how they can help GPs explain what they do.
Healthcare professionals deploying to and practicing in conflicts and catastrophes can experience a plethora of negative emotions due to perceived or actual transgressions of their core ethical principles. In his final Ukraine report, Richard Armitage gives a powerful personal reflection.
Richard Armitage investigates the impact of the war in Ukraine on the country’s health worker density.
Anaemia is a serious public health concern globally, yet WHO's cut-off values for Hgb were established in 1968 using predominantly White populations in Europe and North America. Is it time to update to population specific cut-offs?
How do we support each other when a colleague dies by suicide? A reflection by Louise Stone.
Movies allow health care professionals to immerse themselves in “near-true” experiences that challenge their values and principles. Beatrice Khater and Bassem Saab discuss using The Last King of Scotland in family medicine training at the American University of Beirut
The Ukrainian system of medical education is considered to be both one of the highest quality and relative affordability in the world. Richard Armitage reports how things are affected by the war in Ukraine.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant and well-recognised threat to human health in Ukraine. Richard Armitage discusses how this is further complicated by the war.
For as long as the war in Ukraine continues, the country’s existing substantial unmet need for palliative care and pain relief will increasingly intensify, and ever greater numbers of people with life-limiting conditions will experience intolerable yet preventable suffering at the most
As of day 70 of the Ukraine–Russia war there have been 186 attacks on health care. Drawing comparisons to Russia's involvement in the Syrian Civil War, Hareen De Silva BEM describes the devastating and long-term tolls these attacks have on civilians.
General public concern over the adequate control of blood pressure is notably high within Ukraine, possibly due to the concerning prevalence of hypertensive disease, public awareness of its associated risk factors, and successful health promotion by primary care and public health professionals.
Richard Armitage discusses how the management of vaccine-preventable diseases has been affected by the conflict in Ukraine
Richard Armitage discusses many Ukrainian families have been separated, meaning the vast majority of refugees are women, children, and elderly people, who are often unaccompanied. These vulnerable individuals are exposed to substantially increased risks of being affected by modern slavery, sexual and
Richard Armitage asks if the prevalence of conscientious objection among clinicians could compromise the provision of abortion services in Northern Ireland.
Oleksii Korzh writes from the Kharkiv Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, Ukraine, to describe the effect of the conflict on primary healthcare.
Richard Armitage reminds us that, while they play no part in geopolitical games, it is children – in particular the maintenance of their health and wellbeing – that pay one of the largest and most deeply unjust costs for the accident of
Richard Armitage discusses the interaction of battlefront conditions and COVID-19 in Ukraine
In an open letter to BJGP Life, Roghieh Dehghan and members of the Medact migrant solidarity group argue that deporting refugees to Rwanda is an uncomplicated moral wrong and note the frequent silence of healthcare leadership when these wrongs are mooted by
Richard Armitage uses the inverse care law to discuss the health inequalities affecting Ukrainian civilians who have been unable to flee the country.
Richard Armitage is usually a GP in Nottingham but is currently providing primary care to internally displaced people in the east of Ukraine. He discusses issues for primary care in the region.
Koki Kato reflects on the tension between patient safety and patient centered-ness with a hypothetical case that will be familiar to many. Does it have to be one or the other?
Aaron Poppleton, Dennis Ougrin, and Yana Maksymets give a responsive overview of the health needs of Ukrainian refugees and provide a list of useful resources for GPs
Orest Mulka and Philip Evans discuss the development of general practice in Ukraine and the role of international collaboration in the development of primary care
Koki Kato reflects on learning from an RCGP 'training the trainers' course in Japan, and finds a community of practice.
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.
Paquita De Zulueta reviews 'Go, went, gone' by Jenny Erpenbeck, a novel tackling themes of asylum and involuntary displacement
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.
Koki Kato introduces us to phenomenology as an approach to understanding patient-centred care, using his own illness-experience as a worked example.
Felicitas Selter, Kirsten Persson, and Gerald Neitzke discuss the similarities and differences in animal and human euthanasia as a source of moral distress for the practitioner.
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.
Medicine is the discipline of uncertainty, and this is true of GP training. Koki Kato suggests managing these uncertainties in the same way that we do in consultations.
Why does France seem to be so much better at protecting its population than the UK? Peter Toon reflects on his experience, and advises the Government to put some cheese as well as eggs in its basket.
What can a doctor offer to a patient who has lost three first degree relatives within three weeks? Sajitha Rahman reflects on the role of doctor as witness, in the midst of grief.
Do you feel confident in meeting the needs of Afghan asylum seekers and refugees? The issues are not new. Emily Clark and Rebecca Farrington give us some valuable guidance.
My country was trying to cultivate the tree of democracy and freedom when on the 1 February 2021 the military coup took us back to the dark days of military rule ...
