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).
Sarah Knowles (@dr_know) is a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. Her interests are mental health, applied health services research and patient and public involvement and engagement. Since 2012, the Society for Academic Primary Care has run a competition at their
Thuvaraka Ware is a GP Registrar working in Camden. She tutors medical students at UCL in community medicine and believes primary care research will shape clinical and public health policy over the coming years. The audit process is an important part of
Jim Newmark is a GP who has progressed in his career from senior partnership to salaried to volunteer doctor status. He feels that his Christian faith and family make up for his abysmal memory and gross humiliation in pub quizzes. In November
Simon Morgan is a GP and medical educator from Newcastle, NSW, Australia. He spends his spare time writing and playing the ukulele. Can I take a photo? Recently, I was in Heathrow Airport when an anonymous traveller approached me and asked ‘Do
Adam Staten is a GP trainee in Surrey and is on Twitter @adamstaten. The current struggle to recruit into general practice has been well described and the concern around it has rightly focused on how a shrinking workforce will continue to provide
Thuvaraka Ware is a GP Registrar working in Camden. She tutors medical students at UCL in community medicine and believes primary care research will shape clinical and public health policy over the coming years. I am a junior doctor. I went through
Peter Sykes is a retired surgeon and author. His latest light hearted novel, entitled ‘First do no harm’ is set against the industrial action that beset the NHS in the 1970s. His website is www.petersykes.org. Recently junior doctors voted overwhelmingly in favour of
Devin Gray is a National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow and a GP trainee, interested in driving system-level change to achieve better care and outcomes for patients. This article was co-authored with Professor Nigel Sparrow OBE, Senior National GP Advisor and Responsible Officer, CQC
Rebecca Farrington first worked overseas with refugees 20 years ago for MSF. She is now a GPwSI in refugee mental health having worked in the UK as a GP with people seeking asylum for 10 years. She combines this with a clinical
Ravi Parekh is an academic clinical fellow in General Practice in North-West London with an interest in Medical Education. I am a GP registrar working in London and over the past few months I have felt increasingly apprehensive about the future of
Richard Lehman gives some background on the BJGP article The Ten Commandments for Patient-Centred Treatment published in the October issue. The Ten Commandments for Patient-Centred Treatment had a gestation of nearly four years. And their true parent was John S Yudkin, Emeritus
Guy Rughani is a Foundation Year 2 doctor working in North London. He wrote this short letter to the BJGP. Contribute to the BJGP at http://bjgp.org/letters. I want to be a GP, but the government is doing everything it can to stop me.
Alistair Dobbin is an honorary fellow at Edinburgh University medical school, an ex GP, a researcher and charity director. Book Review: How Do You Feel?: An Interoceptive Moment with Your Neurobiological Self by A.D. (Bud) Craig. Available at Princeton Press: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10405.html Groundbreaking scientific discovery
Jess Drinkwater is a GP in Bradford and NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Leeds. (Ed note: And she is a member of the BJGP Editorial Board.) I am the worst type of car owner. I have never cleaned my
Stephen Bergman is a doctor, novelist and playwright. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine in Medical Humanities and Ethics at New York University Medical School. His book, The House of God, published in 1978, is firmly established in medical culture
Just before the conference this morning they played a 2½ minute video by Dr Jamie Hynes, a GP in Wolverhampton. He's on Twitter: @ArtfulDoctor.
Euan Lawson is the Deputy Editor of the BJGP. Today was the first day of the RCGP Annual Primary Care Conference and the sun was out in Glasgow. Jeremy Hunt turned up for the last two years but we were informed by
Khalil Hassanally is a First5 GP and student of bioethics. Twitter: @asuitabledoctor Coming from an immigrant community there has always been huge pressure on not losing one’s roots. Many apocryphal tales, anecdotes and fables are told in this regard, and one in
James Pearson is an ST3 trainee in Bath and the education scholar for the year. Suddenly you are sitting there alongside all these very intelligent people and the familiar world of sixth form seems so far away. I still remember my first
Adam Staten is a GP trainee in Surrey and is on Twitter @adamstaten. In the June issue of the BJGP there was a debate as to whether GPs should maintain their status as independent contractors. To me this seemed like a macrocosm
Lydia Yarlott is in her final year at Oxford Medical School. She is the winner of the 2015 BJGP Student Writing Competition themed ‘The GP in the Digital Age’ with her original article A Digital Ache. Her tale of one GP versus
Joe Anthony is a history graduate currently in his fourth year studying medicine at the University of Manchester. He was joint second in the BJGP Student Writing Competition which had the theme The GP in the Digital Age. Joe’s article took us straight into
Rebecca Varley trained at Lancaster Medical School and is on the brink of being an FY1 based at Manchester Royal Infirmary. She was joint second place in the BJGP Student Writing Competition which had the theme ‘The GP in the Digital Age’. We liked her
Nabila Rehnnuma is a first year graduate-entry medical student at Cambridge University. A funding crisis, increasing workload, falling real income and continuing negative media press, these are just a few of the reasons why general practice is decreasing in its level of
Louise Skioldebrand is a partner, appraiser and trainer based in Stowmarket, Suffolk. After the first round of recruitment only 72% of UK GP training posts were filled, with some areas as low as 36%…. we can look at possible reasons for this;
Professor Roger Jones is editor of the British Journal of General Practice. The tsunami of chronic disease management – the ageing population, rocketing rates of non-communicable diseases, and increasing complexity – have dominated much of the debate about the future of general
Alex Harding is a GP and academic based in Exeter. UK General Practitioners are the largest part of the medical workforce, deliver the most care and deliver this care highly effectively. Most people who have ventured abroad and talked about health are surprised
Dr S Vashisht qualified in Cardiff, trained in London and is a GP in Nottingham. It will be our 30 year re-union soon and I will be travelling to Cardiff to reminisce with my classmates of 1985. That Class of 1985 is
Claire Robertson is a GP in Inverness. LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER Dear Mr. Cameron, I have been meaning to write to you for some time, but, as I am sure you can imagine, life and work take over and the days fly by.
Adam Staten is a GP trainee in Surrey and is on Twitter @adamstaten. LETTER TO THE HEALTH SECRETARY Dear Mr Hunt, Many congratulations on being re-appointed as Secretary of State for Health in the Conservative cabinet. May I suggest we treat your
John Brooks is a GP from Congleton. The early works of Morris and Rose suggested that those who were more physically active had less coronary heart disease than those who had a more sedentary way of life. The rise in popularity of
Adam Staten is a GP trainee in Surrey and is on Twitter @adamstaten. For years there has been deep concern about the dangers to health of girls and young women aspiring to the figures of ‘size zero’ models. How odd then that
Professor Roger Jones is editor of the British Journal of General Practice. Last weekend The Times published a leading article which described the financial straitjacket in which the NHS finds itself, and suggested that the additional funding required to keep the service
Adam Staten is a GP trainee in Surrey and is on Twitter @adamstaten. When MP and member of the health select committee David Treddinick suggested that the NHS should offer astrology to its patients he was widely ridiculed. To me it seemed
Tim Senior trained as a GP in Sheffield, and now works in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health in Australia. He is a Scorpio, whatever that means. He can be found tweeting from @timsenior News reaches us from the UK Health Select
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. This week I’ve received some good news. I’ve been ‘liked’ by the GMC. Well I say liked, I mean of course ‘revalidated’ but it comes to the same thing. I posted a few comments
Adam Staten is a GP trainee in Surrey and is on Twitter @adamstaten. Cold reading is the art of obtaining information about a person by making a rapid assessment of their body language, manner, age, dress and behaviour. It is commonly used
Claire Morgan is a final year medical student and shares her experience in managing her anorexia nervosa. National Eating Disorders Awareness Week runs from the 22nd to 28th February 2015. I am a final year medical student and in recovery from anorexia
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. It’s a confusing time for the NHS. One minute there’s talk of if being ‘weaponised’ like some all consuming superhero, the next it’s being sent to bed with no supper for causing all those
Adam Staten is a GP trainee in Surrey and is on Twitter @adamstaten. La folie à deux is a shared psychosis in which two people share the same delusion. As it is rare I felt compelled to share an interesting case that I