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).
When I first qualified as a physician associate (PA), I had no intention to work in general practice, at least until later in my career. I was unsure of the impact a PA could have in a GP setting prior to the
David Misselbrook was a South London GP for 30 years. He was involved with GP training, CPD development and medical ethics. He now teaches Family Medicine and ethics for RCSI Bahrain. According to House, “patients lie”. Well, I guess most humans lie.
Dr Katie Barnett is a Post CCT Fellow with Haxby Group Practice in York and an Honorary Clinical Fellow in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York. She is on Twitter @drkatiebarnett1 and blogs about wellbeing and fellowship at:
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. Judy Garland’s was not a happy life. Last weekend I went to see Renée Zellweger in ‘Judy’. It’s a remarkable performance in a film that portrays Judy Garland towards the end of her tragically
Rachel Handscombe is a GP partner in Derbyshire. She is an activity enthusiast and is keen to share the benefits of exercise to those she meets. I wore my 100 parkrun t-shirt to work today. I was curious as to what my
Philippa Jeacocke is an ST3 GP trainee in Sheffield. She has just returned from a year out of training, during which she worked in a variety of settings exploring her interests in refugee heath and palliative care. Nandika has a huge, beaming
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. There’s a scene in Stan and Ollie, the film about Laurel and Hardy when towards the end of the film, Hardy says to Laurel: “I’ll miss this when we’re gone”. He speaks the words,
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. General practice – the story so far: Last week many of us tried to satisfy our appraisers by proving that we had met their unilaterally determined and arbitrarily applied indicators of satisfactory professional development.
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. Not so long ago, a school uniform committee was set up at the local educational establishment frequented by my children. Predictably enough, though nobody seemed to have a problem with the previously requisite attire,
Adam Staten is a GP in Milton Keynes and is on Twitter @adamstaten. In the last forty years there have been at least fifteen major structural reforms to the NHS. These have frequently been cyclical, rapidly and incoherently implemented, with very little
Paul Roberts was a GP for 30 years in Rochdale then Stoke-on-Trent. He is chair of Willow Bank CIC (a social enterprise delivering primary care) and a director of North Staffordshire GP Federation. It doesn’t happen very often, but it is recognisable
Tim Senior is a GP in Australia and a BJGP columnist. Fans of Douglas Adams will recognise the scene.[footnote]Adams D (1982) Life, the universe and everything (Pan Books Ltd, London).[/footnote] There’s a spaceship landed at Lords cricket ground, but no one notices
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. If there is one thing that is common to all patients that consult us, it is that they want things to be better for them than they currently are. They would like us to
Michael Bryant is a GP who splits his time between South Wales and West Africa, where he works in paediatrics and as a medical educator. A J Cronin’s classic novel The Citadel is often credited as being partially responsible for the founding
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. How about impressing your appraiser with this as one of your PDP goals for the coming year: ‘Be drunk’. Charles Baudelaire (1821 – 1867) wrote: “You have to be always drunk. That’s all there
When you were the patient – how was it for you? An ancient Chinese proverb states: “No one can be a good doctor without first having been ill themselves.” We have recently published a book ‘What’s in a Story? Lessons from reflections
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. It is a truth universally acknowledged that fast and cheap won’t be good. Because good things take time to mature – they come about slowly. Be it a fine wine, a meaningful relationship or
Peter Burke is currently a portfolio GP in Oxford. A potted bio with declaration of interests is available at the end of the article. The Romans had a word, decimation. Decimation meant that if a Legion rebelled, one in ten soldiers, regardless
Philippa Jeacocke is a GP trainee in Sheffield currently taking a year Out of Programme Experience (OOPE) between ST2 and ST3 to further explore her interest in refugee health and palliative care. In August 2018 I spent a month working as a
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. Recently The Guardian, and others, reported that doctors were alarmed that an online test which estimated cardiological health revealed that 78% of adults had a heart age older than their chronological age and were,
Luke Allen is a GP academic clinical fellow at Oxford University. A coffee-break conversation about flexible part-time working and relational continuity Sam (early-mid career GP): Hey, can I grab you for a minute to talk about my hours? Charlie (senior GP partner):
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. Like the one whose taste in music veers consistently and increasingly away from societal norms and thus is destined to spend too much time sat in darkened rooms accompanied only by an empty bottle
Professor Kamila Hawthorne explores how NHS Wales can reprioritise its resources to better support and use the skills of its GPs to lead innovative, community-led care. It has been a long, hot summer for general practitioners – in more ways than one.
“All men seek happiness, this is without exception”. So wrote Blaise Pascal in his Pensées. But despite his assertion, and our best efforts, too many of us, it seems, find only sadness. In such circumstances we may well feel useless, but that's
Aristotle had it right when he asserted in his 'Metaphysics' that 'Those who wish to succeed must ask the right preliminary question'. More than 2000 years later, doctors would do well to listen to his advice. Before adopting each and every new
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. If the recent film ‘The Darkest Hour’ is anything to go by, Winston Churchill would have liked a ‘Drinks by the Dram’ Advent Calendar – available last December on Amazon for a shilling short
Chloe Webster is a 4th year medical student, a yogaholic, creative writing enthusiast, and an aspiring future GP. You can read more of her articles. Back then, reflection didn’t really mean anything. It was just another word branded and thrown about through
Life was simple last summer. I was a happily busy wife and mother, enjoying work and keeping fit. I was in good shape, having lost a little weight, and felt great. Until one day when I developed a fever and myalgia. Looking
The first question to practise before a job interview; the one we all know will make an appearance…right?
Well, not if you’ve chosen to pursue a career in general practice. Whilst my colleagues were preparing evidence of their accomplishments and practising expected questions,
Being a patient has certainly made me think a lot. About everything. From the constant waiting, to the unanswered questions, the consultation process, the umpteen tests that get ordered as a snowball effect (turns out once you start seeing doctors, we like
Vernon Needham has been a GP partner, trainer, and police surgeon amongst many other roles in a varied career. He continues to work with the Wessex Deanery Professional Support Unit. Here he offers 25 tips for managing complaints and forming your personal
Times are changing. Long gone are the days of semi-detached houses in the suburbs being home to the family doctor. Lakeside Surgery, Corby is a practice like no other. There is a quiet little boating lake surrounded by a wall of fir
2018 is my seventh year as a GP. Looking back, the learning curve has been steep at times and constant at others. There is much to keep up to date with and this is expected more with each coming year. General practice:
The professionalism of general practitioners continues to be undermined as increasingly we are treated as naughty children who need to be brought into line. We need to make collective decisions on how to practice based on what we know as GPs to
Specialty bashing is not new or uncommon in the NHS. It is particularly directed at those training in general practice and has been a known problem for many generations. Despite a call for change, undermining of this specialty continues to haunt
When the going gets tough, what about those who don’t feel tough enough to keep going? Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. Recently I watched the BBC adaption of ‘Little Women’. Despite the fact that it wasn’t the kind of
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. GP practices are closing at an alarming rate with more and more GPs abandoning the profession as workload rises exponentially and recruitment continues to struggle to keep up with the number of
Mehwish Sharif is a salaried GP in West Bromwich and does locum sessions in the Black Country. I recall thinking about a 5 year plan after completing GP VTS. The plan was quite simple, achieving a good work-life balance between personal and
Martin Roland is an Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Cambridge. Professor Roland was a practising GP for 35 years. So NHS patients are going to be able to deregister with their practice and reregister with a practice
Jacket off, shirtsleeved, roving the stage, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt must have said "The truth is…" three times in the first three minutes of his RCGP Conference speech in Liverpool this Thursday. By the standards of recent Tory party speeches this one