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Opinion - Page 23

Embracing Change: Reflections from a newly qualified GP

For a patient, time with their GP is everything; time to explain, connect, and trust. For the GP, time is just as essential. Not only for improved patient care, but for reflection on the enormous and constant changes to the profession. In
12 October 2020
3 mins read
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Everybody Hurts Sometimes

30 years ago we were told we were not treating pain adequately. There was a push to give people more analgesia. So, armed with our opioids and gabapentinoids we went and we medicated. But peoples' pain got worse. Katie Barnett examines what
9 October 2020
4 mins read
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Covid-19: communicating with numbers

Numbers have no voice. We, however, give them meaning. Using numbers we can twist the narrative to suit the point we want to make. Following his spectacular rise on social media Samar Razaq investigates the dark arts of manipulation, politics and statistics.
2 October 2020
2 mins read

The Citadel by A. J. Cronin: A symbolic title

The Citadel, a 1937 novel by A. J. Cronin, explores the themes of social and health inequalities, drawing from his personal experiences working as a doctor in Britain’s pre-NHS era. The protagonist, newly qualified and virtuous Dr Andrew Manson, begins his medical
17 September 2020
3 mins read

The view from the ferris wheel

Who would have wanted to be a lead clinician in Public Health England at the start of the pandemic? Judith Dawson finds that trying to balance the population losses against individual and economic loss is an impossible job. But in a typical
15 September 2020
2 mins read

Wellbeing and the primary care workforce

The primary care workforce has been right at the heart of the response to COVID-19, working hard in new and rapidly changing circumstances to ensure patient care continues to be provided to all those who need it in the community.
14 September 2020
3 mins read
1

A short course in racism

David Misselbrook discusses how two books, To Kill a Mockingbird and Sacred Hunger, have helped him understand more about why Black Lives Matter matters and have given him his own refresher course in racism.
11 September 2020
3 mins read
2

The problem of prescribing for pain

Judith Dawson reflects on the draft NICE guidelines for the management of chronic primary pain. There is widespread use of ineffective and addictive pain medication of questionable benefit. However, implementing any change will depend on a cohesive approach across primary and secondary
4 September 2020
2 mins read

Welcome to the age of #SpectacularHealthcare

Despite ‘seeing’ more patients remotely, we are becoming more isolated, living our lives in lonely clinics and solitary consultations. The art of medicine becomes abstract, doctors and patients united in their separation.
2 September 2020
3 mins read

It is time for general practice to act on racism in health care

Under the Prevent policy, NHS Trust staff are trained to spot signs of radicalisation and refer cases to the government. Within a systemically racist social system this policy succeeds only in targeting minority groups and those who are most vulnerable. The abolishment
3 August 2020
2 mins read

Retirement and managing the ‘peridoctorpause’

Ed Warren is a retired GP. He notes that a feature of getting older is that you have more opinions and are convinced that others want to hear them. He reflects on the ageing process, cognitive biases, coming to terms with his
30 July 2020
3 mins read

Is this really doctoring?

The opportunities to treat more and more patients in less and less time is the unspoken aim of the improving of technology. But as we move into this future, we must continue to courageously ask both ourselves and our employers; is this
22 July 2020
2 mins read

The fable of the dun cow: GPs are not a limitless resource

If general practice becomes unsustainable, we will lose the most effective and efficient health service we have, and it will not be easily replaced. It’s time we involved GPs in the critical analysis of the holes in the system, before our capacity
18 July 2020
4 mins read

Pandemic primary care and the lack of a picture

So why am I more exhausted from a full day in practice when I have only seen four patients face-to-face, dealt with 30 or so patients over the phone and conducted a MS Teams practice meeting? The ambience around appears calmer –
18 July 2020
2 mins read

The conundrum of self neglect

Most clinicians will encounter cases of self-neglect during their career, which will vary from mild presentations to really disturbing cases where the self-neglect becomes extreme. What drives such behaviour and how do we manage it?
17 July 2020
3 mins read

Reclaiming the physical examination for general practice

Described as the 'cornerstone of safe and effective practice', the physical examination has always been an integral part of what makes a competent GP. With recent evidence presenting a decline in GPs' physical examination skills over recent years, GP Simon Morgan reflects
16 July 2020
3 mins read

BLM, population health and policing

The effect of being stopped and searched by the police can be psychologically traumatic and leave one feeling scared, powerless and humiliated. I thought about my patients. A lot of patients I look after are black and I wondered about how negative
2 July 2020
3 mins read

Health inequality and COVID: Two centuries of social murder

Health experts and politicians have warned for over 170 years that health inequality is killing those in the most deprived parts of society. We now witness the poorest in society disproportionately dying of COVID-19, suggesting that the social murder observed by Engels
25 June 2020
3 mins read
1

BAME excess deaths: chronic stress and constant hostility

Everyone of us in the health service has overheard unacceptable rudeness, sly put-downs, exclusion or smiling say-the-opposite-of what-you-mean British insincerity. We need to acknowledge that it is happening. There is no mysterious genetic or melanin fault causing excess deaths among health workers
16 June 2020
2 mins read
2

Pride and prejudice in the NHS

How much does it take for us to genuinely express sorrow and compassion for the terrible trials our patients endure? We have pride in the NHS but we have prejudice too. Perhaps it is the NHS clinician that is Icarus, flying too
11 June 2020
3 mins read

The absurd general practitioner

An individual working as a GP runs the risk of becoming an automaton. Evidence-based medicine and professional standardisation contribute to uniformity and by definition a reduction in diversity. Camus says that “if the world were clear, art would not exist” and I
10 June 2020
3 mins read

Trust Me I’m a Millennial GP

As a 20-something millennial GP trainee, the sudden talk about the future of primary care is exciting. I once heard a futurologist say, “Don’t ask ‘what will it look like down line?’ ask ‘what do you want it to look like?’” I
1 June 2020
3 mins read
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