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Opinion - Page 25

Managing ‘medic mum guilt’ as a GP

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
21 November 2017
3 mins read
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Jerry cross the Mersey: Hunt at the RCGP Conference

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
13 October 2017
3 mins read
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Sick leave in general practice

On my journey to being a grown-up GP, I completed placements in four different practices as a junior doctor (FY2, ST1, ST3 and ST4). As you might imagine, each placement introduced me to a host of intriguing colleagues – both clinical and
20 July 2017
1 min read
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A GP’s experience of the Grenfell Tower fire

Ahmed Kazmi is a GP at Exmoor Surgery in West London. He is also a stand up comedian and his next shows will be used to fundraise for the dispossessed. For tickets go to: www.doctorahmed.net and to donate: www.justgiving.com/doctorahmed. He is on Twitter
16 June 2017
2 mins read
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My story of everyday scholarship in general practice

Faraz Mughal is a GP in Birmingham and the RCGP Clinical Fellow in Children and Young People’s Mental Health. He is on Twitter: @farazhmughal Making scholarship part of my daily practice contributes to the intellectual challenge and enjoyment of my work in general
26 April 2017
2 mins read
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General Practice: The Game of Inches

Anybody who was a fan of movies, sports, or Al Pacino in 1999 is probably familiar with Pacino’s famous ‘game of inches’ speech. Pacino was playing the part of coach to a struggling American Football team and it was with this speech
29 March 2017
2 mins read
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Book Review: The State of Medicine by Margaret McCartney

The State of Medicine is an eloquent, passionate, comprehensive, and, in many ways, dispiriting overview of the repeated damage inflicted on the NHS at the whim of successive governments. The frustration of the author, a GP from Glasgow, pours from every page,
13 January 2017
1 min read
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Just how successful are STPs likely to be?

The NHS in England is going through a process called Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs). As the NHS England website describes “each system will produce a multi-year Sustainability and Transformation Plan showing how local services will evolve and become sustainable over the
10 January 2017
4 mins read

Obituary for St James Church Surgery: the death of a practice

St James Church Surgery 1987-2016: the demise of small General Practices A personal celebration and lament David Zigmond Small general practices used to be very common and mostly popular. Yet due to healthcare policies they are now increasingly rare and almost extinct.
30 November 2016
5 mins read
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A short break for tribalism, war and dodgy goddesses.

Bahrainis are migratory, especially during the annual Ashoora holiday. Ex-pats and locals alike flee the country, squeezing through Bahrain’s easygoing airport like a cork from champagne. Cyprus is beguilingly close, so there we landed for a couple of days R and R.
8 November 2016
3 mins read
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Medicine in an Age of Empires

I recently attended a talk at the hospital post-graduate centre where the speaker introduced herself as the hospital’s new ‘heart failure consultant’ rather than the new cardiologist. This set me thinking, as many things do, about the strange nature of secondary care
26 October 2016
2 mins read
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Heroes: general practice and Karpman’s triangle

Living in a different culture is exciting and fascinating. But living in Bahrain we do miss “culture” in its other sense. There is a magnificent National Theatre, usually empty, putting on just a few touring shows a year. The nearest opera house
5 October 2016
3 mins read
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STPs – plans being made about us, without us?

NHS England is in the process of implementing the Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP), which draws together Clinical Commissioning Groups, local authorities and providers to show “how local services will evolve and become sustainable over the next five years”. In each geographical
2 October 2016
2 mins read
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Why Slazenger’s cat explains global warming

I admit that Slazenger’s cat is a red herring, but my wife was in a rail carriage a while ago, close to a small group of friends in earnest discussion. One was trying to refer to the paradox of Schrödinger’s cat, but
19 September 2016
3 mins read
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Time for the old guard to join the social media fray?

The news is everywhere. I don’t mean this in the way that I might if I were a dewy-eyed aspiring journalist, seeing fascination and potential scoops in everything around me. I mean that news coverage seems to be literally everywhere; on the
15 September 2016
2 mins read

Brexit and statins: a tale of scepticism

Christien Fortune is a final year medical student at The University of Manchester and has interests in cardiology and medical education. In the fabled land of post-June 23rd Britain and Northern Ireland, politics in the UK has been understandably dominated by the UK’s
7 September 2016
3 mins read

Brave New Medical World 2084

Death has been banned and we will all live forever. Hurrah! The medical profession has decreed that as long as we take all the necessary measures to avoid risk that we can live forever. Doctors through scientific research have established the major
27 July 2016
2 mins read
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Why have an operation if you can avoid one?

George Ampat is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon hoping to help patients find non-surgical solutions. Why have an operation if you can avoid one? It’s a simple question with an obvious answer but increasingly surgery is being used where it may not be
19 July 2016
2 mins read
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The merits of time off from practice

Although we would otherwise think and hope it, there remains a culture within medicine that disincentivises time off for anything, from parental leave to sabbaticals. The reasons for this are myriad, from concerns about de-skilling to the fear of the unknown and
12 July 2016
1 min read
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Googling symptoms: let’s do it together

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
5 May 2016
1 min read

General practice in meltdown: it’s not just funding

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
28 April 2016
3 mins read
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Hearing crackles: reflections on PACES and prejudice

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
15 April 2016
6 mins read
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