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Opinion - Page 9

Is hospital the only choice?

For the record, plenty of elderly patients have excellent lifesaving care, are well looked after, and speak highly of the exemplary care and attention they had in hospital. However, hospital isn’t always the best place for them. Let me explain why I
7 February 2024
5 mins read
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Looking in and looking out

Throughout medical history, there has been a tension between systems that locate health within the patient and those that have it outside. Ben Hoban finds the determinants of health and illness by looking in and by looking out.
31 January 2024
4 mins read
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Caritas in a cold climate

This issue’s life and times articles describe the failure of society and policymakers to value general practice. To value is to understand and appreciate both the beauty and appropriate uses of a thing. It also has a sense of quantitate weighing -
26 January 2024
5 mins read

Extended roles and special interests

It’s worth examining the reasons in the health system for supporting special interests. Are we playing Jenga with the health system, continually removing building blocks to replace obvious deficiencies in a rickety structure? Or are we enhancing the generalist, patient-centred care that
23 January 2024
2 mins read
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Discontinuity of care and patient safety

We know (from that research) that higher continuity is associated with lower mortality rates, reduced healthcare costs, higher patient satisfaction, safer prescribing and reduced hospitalisations.  But what about patient safety incidents? Nada Khan investigates
15 January 2024
5 mins read
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Jean Baudrillard against the Post Office

Over 4 million people watched the first episode of Mr Bates against the Post Office when it screened on New Year’s Day. And suddenly things started to happen. David Misselbrook reflects on what this might mean for British medicine...
10 January 2024
2 mins read
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Grieving for a lost Christmas cake…

In a world of immediacy and impermanence, my two cards and lonely box of chocolates earn a particular significance. They emphasise the humanity that is still possible in General Practice despite the need to count, measure, and capture everything – a connection
7 January 2024
3 mins read
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Going the extra mile

"The extra mile is a problematic concept. If everyone goes the extra mile, do we lose sight of which miles are extra? If we are to embark on our quest then the readings in this month’s Life and Times help us to
29 December 2023
4 mins read

Shifting sands

"After a storm, the sand shifts. Amazing volumes appear and disappear from areas of the beach. Dunes are sliced away, leaving sand-cliffs. Others newly appear. Rock and the keel-spines of old wrecks are exposed that I never knew lay there at all.
28 December 2023
3 mins read
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Alone: General Practice

...while the risk of bear attacks or frostbite is substantially lower than in the popular namesake television series, GP trainees face a range of similar challenges as their TV counterparts – isolation, uncertainty, a steep learning curve, and genuine fear.
21 December 2023
4 mins read

Normalising exploitation

I left a job today. It was a good job with good people, which is always hard. It’s so much easier to leave when the interpersonal environment is toxic. It’s difficult when colleagues are deeply collegiate, but the structure is exploitative.
17 December 2023
4 mins read

Medwise.ai, and what AI in general practice will really look like

Richard Armitage investigates Medwise.ai, an 'AI tool' that claims to empower practitioners with informed decision-making, adherence to guidelines, quick access to answers, and a reduction in burden on GPs for supervision. But are these claims anywhere near the reality?
13 December 2023
4 mins read

Being human

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to download the latest updates in your sleep and go to work knowing that you were fully NHS-compliant, and without having to dodge any of those awkward questions about Segawa Syndrome? It certainly feels as
11 December 2023
3 mins read
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Framing the debate: Race-based requests in medicine

...requests for race-based concordance is a complicated area of medicine, and it is one that is not easily dealt with through formulised policies. Instead, well-reasoned judgements by the care team through a deliberative process, that begin with ethical frameworks, might provide a
10 December 2023
7 mins read
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Workload transfer in the NHS: The Great British Dump

nappropriate transfer of workload can go both ways, and it can feel highly frustrating for GPs and hospital specialists alike.  But as patient care becomes increasingly fragmented, thinking locally about how to improve collaborative care might help build back those relationships across
8 December 2023
6 mins read
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