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Opinion - Page 2

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Shaking hands again

"We tended to turn door knobs with our elbow or to press elevator’s buttons using our house keys. As time passes, these somehow obsessive behaviours have been gradually abated, but I feel some subconscious concern still remains. In my personal experience, I
17 September 2025
3 mins read
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Getting back in the fight

'It’s just that you’ve been here for a while already and as you say, we’ve covered several things, and I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed by your list of problems.' A consultation through the allegorical lens of science fiction battle armour!
13 September 2025
3 mins read
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Knocking for help: a hidden strain of GP-training

In clinical scenarios that are unfamiliar or require in-person review, trainees are often forced to leave their patients mid-consultation to seek help. The act of “door knocking” i.e interrupting a colleague who is themselves consulting - can feel burdensome. Hana Esack reflects.
1 September 2025
2 mins read
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A Poem : Beyond The Extra Mile.

A poem for the beleaguered, the determined or the stubborn amongst us, who go to work each day and just do the best we can. Rest assured, despite the clamour and noise of unmet expectation, it is enough.
28 August 2025
1 min read
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“AI psychosis”

While not (yet) a formal diagnosis, the term "AI psychosis" or “ChatGPT psychosis” is being used to describe presentations in which delusional or psychotic symptoms centre around interaction with large language models (LLMs).
20 August 2025
2 mins read
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Home is where the heart is?

I'd spoken to so many residents on the phone but I hadn't ever quite got the picture of what the living conditions were like. I did now. The poor chests that never truly recovered from antibiotics, the perennial mental health difficulties -
16 August 2025
4 mins read
2
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In summer!

"As ever, the articles in Life and Times tell a story, a meta-narrative that shares present realities, draws on the past, and attempts to speculate on the future ..."
1 August 2025
4 mins read
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The absurdity of GP funding in Wales

"The premise of this formula (Carr-Hill) is very reasonable and fair. Sadly, it doesn’t always work, partly due to at least two anomalies in the formula. To understand this, we’ve had to employ a fair degree of nerdery as the formula is
28 July 2025
3 mins read
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Eating animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer

This life-changing book is not a polemic in the strident sense. It aims to answer the questions of where the meat that is consumed by humans comes from, how it is produced and what economic and environmental effects this has.
25 July 2025
2 mins read
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Your brain on ChatGPT – one for the journal club!

The researchers coined the term "cognitive debt" to describe how LLMs spare the user mental effort in the short term but generate long-term costs including diminished critical thinking, reduced creativity and independent thought, increased vulnerability to bias and manipulation, and shallow information
23 July 2025
3 mins read
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Samples (poem)

Our patients leave the room yet now some of them left behind. To be taken elsewhere, a fraction of body now extracted from mind.
22 July 2025
1 min read
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On not being paternalistic

...maybe thinking of ourselves as being maternalistic acknowledges existing authority, and allows us to aim for our patients to thrive, to be in control of their destinies, guided by caring, wise professionals.
21 July 2025
2 mins read
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A poem: Heart failure.

Using a narrative based approach can also enrich our own perspective and give us boldness to hold back from encasing patients in the tight algorithms that chronic disease management is often associated with. Becca Quinn offers a reframing poem.
16 July 2025
1 min read
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