Category: Opinion

There is a growing research interest in doctor’s “gut feeling” about diagnosis in consultations. But Covid has radically changed our consultations. Can our gut feelings catch up?

Marion Brown and Stevie Lewis urgently remind us to make sure we are not mistaking antidepressant adverse effects and/or withdrawal issues for medically unexplained symptoms, functional neurological disorders or chronic fatigue syndrome.

Isn’t it great to know that with evidenced based practice we will always get it right? Charles Todd reminds us of a few home truths.

Should bereavement leave be a dependant on Employers’ goodwill? Bert Leysen and Johan Wens survey the current situation in Europe and suggest a better way.

Anna Gordon reminds us that refugees are people like us, but in desperate need of our humanity.

Competing patient, family medicine and psychiatric perspectives complicate the management of distress and mental illness general practice and call for resolution. K. S. Jacob suggests some ways forward.

Some GPs seem invincible, gliding through their entire careers with a minimum of alarms. How do they do it? Retired GP, Ed Warren, muses on attitudes worth cultivating during a career as a GP.

During the current Covid-19 pandemic, operating procedures to deal with face-to-face consultations in primary care in the United Kingdom were clear in the need of separating services for patients with symptoms of Covid-19, and for shielded patients needing care. Pablo Millares Martin discusses the implications for current primary care building layout.

Migrants are widely recognised to have complex and diverse health needs, but recent reform within the NHS includes the introduction of healthcare charges for many of them. These may create pressure on GP services, increase the disease burden and widen health inequalities,

We see the refugee crisis remotely, on our TV screens. Dr Peter von Kaehne decided to do something to help. We need to hear his story.

Many clinical situations force patients into disempowered vulnerability. Judith Dawson reflects on the etiquette of dressing and undressing within the consultation.

Many former GPs may want to move along a different career pathway, but when they retire from clinical work they encounter barriers. Mona Aquilina argues that we need to harness and leverage the skills and energy of these doctors and she gives some suggestions as to how to start.