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.
[starbox id=adamstaten] Today I am writing from the most middle class circle of hell; the circle of hell where sinners are stuck in a perpetual home buying chain. Of all the costly obstacles to selling and buying houses, I have found the
Diagnosis is one of the most rewarding aspects of medicine and is one of the most attractive features of general practice. There are few areas of medicine, arguably just general practice and the Emergency Department, where you get the opportunity to encounter
Bronwen Warner is an FY1 doctor at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She spent a month with Heilendi GP Practice in the Orkney Islands as part of her elective at Bristol Medical School. Patients stumble into the waiting room, propelled by a passing
The English Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, recently sparked anger when he suggested that parents could look online to determine the severity of their child’s rash. The medical community rightly rebuffed this firmly, highlighting the potential harm that could be caused, notably through
You can download the PDF and comment on this article in the May issue of the BJGP available at bjgp.org. General practice is in crisis. One in three training posts are empty, 10% of GP positions are unfilled and this is worsening
Ashika Sequeira trained on the Bromley GP Scheme and is a Locum General Practitioner. Alexandra Grove is an ST2 trainee in General Practice in the Tower Hamlets training scheme, East London. Vanessa Oo is a GPST2 in the UCLH GP training scheme. Work
Rachel Brettell is an Academic Clinical Fellow GP Trainee in the Oxford Deanery. As a GP registrar, the MRCGP Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) exam is currently at the forefront of my mind. VTS teaching focuses on how to pass, evenings are spent
Jonny Coates is one of the First5 GPs that’s not in Australia. He works in Newcastle upon Tyne. Hospitals are awash with Pharma freebies. CCU is littered with the logo of the latest statin, the psychiatrist’s pen bears the name of the
Aisha Yahaya is a GP ST2 with Imperial VTS who has an interest in effective communication with patients, writing and a yearly resolution to save her guitar from the dusty corner in which it sits. Increasingly, I learn more about the way of
Kath Checkland (@khcheck) is a GP and a Professor at the University of Manchester. She is a passionate advocate of the value of qualitative research, and is a member of the BJGP editorial board. On Saturday, the British Medical Journal published an
Jim Pink (top) is a GP, father and songwriter with an interest in people, rather than patients. Jenny Coventry (right) is a fourth year medical student at Cardiff. In her free time she loves country walks and playing in the Cornish waves. Leo
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.