In October and November 2024, Brian Lambert spent six weeks volunteering as a ‘medic’ at the Mavrovouni refugee camp on Lesvos, working for the Dutch charity the Boat Refugee Foundation (BRF).
The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is not a medical assessment, an incorrect assumption often claimed by politicians. Mo Stewart discusses the negative and sometimes catastrophic consequences for the disabled.
Has a reduction in face to face appointments meant a change of vision for UK General Practice? Richard Pratt argues that our vision is unchanged, it is our methods that have had to change.
Being a GP is a great vocation. But what if we have two vocations that may conflict? Anupma Parihar reflects on juggling her work and family commitments.
Last year the Lancet predicted ‘Substantial increases in the number of avoidable cancer deaths in England’ as a result of diagnostic delays due to the pandemic in the UK. Jenny Stephenson discusses some of the issues involved.
Is the concept of the patient as an 'inconvenience' a pernicious aspect of the hidden curriculum of medical school and postgraduate training? Nathaniel Aspray tells us his story.
Our current system is not OK. Day after day, my clinic is full of people struggling to cope with their mental health needs. So what is going wrong?
Following the BMA vote to withdraw opposition to physician assisted suicide the possibility of doctors being expected to be involved in hastening their patients' deaths looks closer. Claud Regnard and his colleagues discuss some of the practical issues involved.
Frustrated. Exhausted. Burnt out. If we don’t support those working in primary care, the NHS as we know it will no longer exist.
Why is the General Medical Council's ‘Good Medical Practice' like eating plate after plate of chips? No, it's not the first line of a joke - let Bhupinder Goraya explain all.
Time for a bit of mind bending together with a trip to the seaside? Nigel Masters reviews an exhibition entitled "Big Medicine" in the new art gallery in Bournemouth.
In consultations there is an emotional “exchange” between the doctor and the patient. Usually the patient comes to see us in a state of anxiety, ill health, sometimes frustration and anger and then projects this onto the GP. The GP will then
Positive experiences on GP placements make undergraduates more likely to pursue GP training later on. Jack Amiry found that GPs who enjoy teaching have numerous opportunities to get involved.
She is young to have so many layers to her suffering. I know about the fragile life she leads on the edge of homelessness ...
It takes great commitment, responsibility and dedication to save lives at the coal-face of the NHS. Yet we are seeing sharp increases in the abuse, violence and discrimination of our NHS staff. Carter Singh reflects on the way that the Euro 2020
COVID-19 has forced many conferences to be held virtually in 2020 and 2021, but in a post-COVID world should conferences continue to be held virtually? Dr Niha Mariam Hussain discusses positives and negatives to virtual conferencing, providing primary research and insights into
During this pandemic we have sometimes been so overwhelmed by the obvious information that we overlook what is hidden in plain sight. Samar Razaq advises us to avoid premature enumeration.
Dr Sooyoung Lee describes her own experience of the misunderstanding and dismissal of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) evidenced in primary care. Is it time to reconsider our attitudes?
There is a cash crisis in the NHS and Social Care. As there has been for the last decade. Arthur Kaufman suggests that a government issue of Health & Social Care Bonds could raise a substantial amount of finance without imposing further
NHS England-led changes to the way we deliver primary care to our care home residents were accelerated due to the Covid pandemic. Deirdre Walsh and Domini James report on their own local feedback.
"There is something immensely grounding about working with the earth and weathering the seasons. Gardening is immersive. It slows you down and can be a humbling experience." Charlotte Sidebotham takes us back to the soil.
We know that information gathering in the medical consultation is through both verbal and non-verbal communication. But there is also that which goes unsaid. Chris Ellis offers his reflections on the importance of accessing that which is unsaid.
We are given reassurances that the MRCGP exams are fair and unbiased. But Laura Emery, an Academic Clinical Fellow at the University of Sheffield, challenges us to ask whether this is correct.
Euan Mackinnon and colleagues sound the alert that COVID-19 lockdowns have reduced head and neck cancer referrals to secondary care, and now primary tumour size is significantly larger at presentation. We need to reverse this worrying trend. Cancer hasn't gone away.
Funding for online consultation services varies across the UK. Kris McLaughlin argues that online consultations will remain a vital part of future general practice, and will in fact improve access for all patients, not just the young or digitally savvy.
Pimary care is undergoing a seismic restructuring such that the nature of the job has changed beyond recognition. Nigel Masters reflects on the role played by the electronic health record which tethers doctors to the computer screen.
During training, we learnt that a doctor either ‘has’ or ‘lacks’ empathy. But we ALL have empathy in various forms. Rabia Aftab shows us how we can learn to have empathetic consultations.
The recent conflict has led to the Palestinian Ministry of Health offices being bombed and the main Palestinain COVID-19 laboratory being targeted also. Our medical colleagues are overwhelmed and struggling for resources. Abdullah Albeyatti gives us a glimpse as to the conditions
The pressure is building up in General Practice and Primary Care. Will things get better? Will things get even worse? Will General Practice have a future as the greatest of all the medical professions? David Mummery gives us his take on problems
The role of a GP is not merely clinical management, but committing to a person-centred approach. Might the Covid-19 pandemic have caused us to lose some of that ‘real’ touch with our patients? Rabia Aftab enters the face to face consultation debate.
Syed Ishaq Husain and his colleagues are thinking globally and acting locally. Here they show us how the UN Sustainability Goals and Materiality Assessments can be used as tools for General Practice.
Martin Benfield shares his particular consulting style, aiming to make the history taking more transparent to the patient, helping the patient to see in advance where the doctor is going.
Covid has changed much. But Darren Puttock and Gailash Panray ask us to consider the possible long term impacts on general practice in terms of recruitment of trainees into the profession.
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 ...
What is it to be a GP? Many are keen to tell us what extra tasks we should be doing. Sati Heer-Stavert suggests we go back to Plato's theory of forms to reflect on what GPness actually means.
Do you remember the 1990s Defeat Depression Campaign? Do you remember we were told that anti-depressants were safe, effective and non-addictive? Marion Brown reminds us of the sad truths that we have since learned - to our patients' cost.
The upheavals of the last year have meant that trust needs to be managed differently. Joanne Reeve examines the role of both 'scientia' and 'caritas' in the doctor / patient relationship.
The 2020 Lancet Countdown on health and climate change finds that excess red meat consumption is causing nearly a million deaths globally every year. Laura Freeman and Shireen Kassam argue that it is time for family doctors to support patients to remove
Muslims form one third of the Black and Minority Ethnic group in the UK and are ethnically diverse. There is substantive evidence of racial inequalities in healthcare. Jamila Sherif tells about the problem of unconscious bias in Muslim womens' experiences of healthcare.
We become accustomed as GPs to time being broken up into 10-minute blocks. Time, what was once fluid, is now a regimented 'slot', but to the patient the consultation extends beyond its walls. Exploring the perception of time from both the clinician
We have all come across many patients who suffer psychologically, in the last stages of their life, often with a crisis of meaning. Emma Presern reviews the recent evidence on psychedelic therapy.