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Opinion - Page 13

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Monty Hall for doctors

Three doors are visible to the audience, behind one of which is a car; behind the others are two goats, presumably sedated to stop them giving themselves away...
12 January 2026
5 mins read

Networks, nodes, and equilibrium

On any given day, GPs diagnose and treat, listen, validate, interpret, advise, support, and advocate. A large part of what we do, though, is indirect, by linking patients with various other parts of the healthcare system.
3 May 2023
3 mins read
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How much does a GP cost?

In an era where difficulties in GP recruitment and retention are having significant impacts on the workforce, will knowing the ‘value’ of a GP give us any clues as to the projected cost in terms of loss to the system if that
1 May 2023
4 mins read
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Why we must stop “consenting the patient”

Slight changes in phraseology can dramatically alter the central meaning of a vitally important principle.  By “consenting the patient” instead of “seeking meaningful consent,” the right of our patients to be involved in choices about their treatment and care... is exchanged with
30 April 2023
7 mins read
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The war in Ukraine: mental health in primary care

Evidence collected by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the World Health Organization in recent months shows that mental health, rehabilitation and the population's access to health services are the top priorities and issues to be addressed. Oleksii Korzh unpacks the
27 April 2023
4 mins read

Blame game

The population’s patience and tolerance for error seems to have reduced, and we have forgotten what it is to be human. This feels like a dangerous threat to professions that thrive on human interaction.
24 April 2023
2 mins read

Invisible work

The reporting of a limited set of nationally important diagnoses, some risk factors and some quantitative measures leaves a lot more of the work invisible. It is this invisible work that holds the health system together, argues Tim Senior.
23 April 2023
2 mins read
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Measuring meaning

"More validation should be given to the therapeutic benefits of listening closely and bearing witness to somebody’s suffering." – Rupal Shah and colleagues continue their hermeneutic series, focusing on the importance of relational care in general practice ...
20 April 2023
6 mins read
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Imagining the future

The place of Medicine in our imagined future, science fiction, tends to be defined by technology. As in science fiction, so in medicine there is a constant tension between the technological and the human, what is possible and what is desirable.
5 April 2023
3 mins read
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To bend or to break

Is the ‘human touch’ aspect of care necessary? Perhaps not. But does it change patient experience? For sure. And does it take much time? No. I refuse to believe it would add delays and hinder efficiency. The front-line role of reception and
29 March 2023
2 mins read
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“We threw the guidelines at her.”

Careful, caring and person-centred application of guidance is required to ensure patients benefit from, and are not harmed by, healthcare. I’d like to talk about Joan, an 86-year-old lady who had rarely visited the surgery. We threw the guidelines at her...
25 March 2023
3 mins read
2
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Change and progress

In the surgery, patients still express the hopelessness of their lived reality: lives built around sitting; exercise options that are difficult to access geographically and financially; and the cheapest food options too often the ‘wrong’ choices...
24 March 2023
4 mins read
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Living in the third age of medicine

In the First and Second Ages, medicine was transacted between individual patients and doctors at times of illness. The Third Age, in which we find ourselves currently, is associated with the development of a much bigger picture in which this is no
23 March 2023
5 mins read
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General practice allies

Now imagine, that for the majority of cases being presented, the consultant condescendingly - and unnecessarily - adds, at the end of the majority of cases, that they had been diagnosed and managed wrongly by the 'incompetent' GP prior to coming to
20 March 2023
4 mins read
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Your child’s GP

...After a long day being your child’s GP, I come home. I get a few tantrums, followed by a cuddle 10 minutes later. I am a mum, just like you.
19 March 2023
1 min read

Low carbon inhalers: an opportunity for much wider change

Inhaler prescribing alone accounts for approximately 3% of the NHS’s carbon footprint. Unsurprisingly, this has been targeted by Greener NHS as a priority area. Here, Emma Radcliffe describes a number of success stories of practices reducing their metered dose inhaler (MDI) prescribing,
15 March 2023
4 mins read

Video consultation services – A paradoxical lifeline

They are billed as digital solutions, but they simply offer a locum GP, restricted to video. My experience over the last 3 years leading a GP federation has opened my eyes to the long-term perils of short-term solutions such as this.
10 March 2023
4 mins read
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Being an ethnic doctor is easier … but not easy

My parents being immigrants, enforced into us to keep our heads down and work hard, to adopt a ‘don’t cause trouble’ attitude... Being called these occasional names I still performed well academically at school, it never placed limits. Life was good …
9 March 2023
2 mins read
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Waiting for a National Health Godot

The phrase ‘we can’t go on like this’ is frequently banded around on social media in relation to the NHS. However, it seems that the staff working within this organisation can, and are; but at what cost?
26 February 2023
1 min read
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