An adventure in space and theme

This month (May 2024) a British icon embarks on an adventure in space and theme.

‘But that is “space and time” surely?’ I hear you say?

While I could be referring to the BBC TV series Doctor Who, which airs this month, I am in fact referring to the BJGP’s own Time and Relative Dimensions In Space machine (TARDIS). The Life and Times section is in fact bigger on the inside, as submissions air online and a selection are chosen for a print edition, conditional on (with apologies for the awful pun) space and theme. This month’s BJGP looks at ‘Workforce’, and accordingly Life and Times focuses on the people in primary health care as the tellers and protagonists of stories, as well as the evolving narrative in which we all participate.

Who is the doctor?

There has been significant debate recently around how best to name the newest healthcare profession to seek regulation under the umbrella of the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Cathal Gallagher reflects on the legality of the title ‘Doctor’ and argues that the title should depend on essential characteristics of the professional in the service of patients rather than as a detachable and transferrable badge of status.¹

Following on from last month’s reflection on the ‘one big thing’ that GPs do,² Ben Hoban reflects that a dearth of doctors in primary care, and the need for them to supervise non-medical staff at the expense of their own clinical work, is likely to push us towards a more transactional kind of medicine. On the other hand, a growing awareness of the benefits of personal care may yet pull us back towards something more easily recognisable as general practice.³

That tension between transactional intervention and holistic care is evident in the management of obesity. Nada Khan reflects that semaglutide may be of benefit in the short term to some people. However, the real magic solution the obesity crisis needs will be rooted in stronger interventional policy to fix the food system and our relationship with unhealthy eating.⁴

I review Thinking About Patients, a classic text (first published in 2001) that applies sociology and psychology to medical practice. I first read it in 2011 while doing a PhD in medical education and wondered how I had missed it, so it is good to see it re-released, albeit as a library hardback and an ebook.⁵ This takes our gaze beyond the biomedical to begin to see the public and the profession of medicine as people in the world.

Life and times of heroes in space and time

Trisha Greenhalgh reviews Belly Woman, by Benjamin Black, and finds it a compelling read: ‘Read this book because it will teach you that while other fast crises like volcanoes erupting, bombs dropping, and earthquakes shaking a city’s foundations are clearly important, so are other slow crises like the global shortage of skilled healthcare staff, the progressive concentration of resources in the hands of a super-rich few while growing numbers of people live in precarity, and the gradual but inexorable warming of the planet and loss of biodiversity.’⁶

John Launer reflects on the life and times of Sir Nicholas Winton — now made famous by the movie One Life with Anthony Hopkins — after reading his biography. At the age of 29, Nicky Winton found it completely beyond belief that no one was arranging for children from Jewish families, or those with parents who were politically radical, to escape to the UK from Prague.  With a group of friends, Winton set up an office in a Prague hotel and invited families at risk to bring their children so they could record their details, addresses, and photos to try and arrange for their emigration. At least 6000 people, counting children and grandchildren, are alive now because of Nicky Winton and his friends.⁷

Graham Easton reviews Nye at the National Theatre in London. He finds this to be an inspiring, uplifting play about one of his heroes — the Welsh firebrand MP and father of the NHS, Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan — vividly acted by Michael Sheen. Tim Price’s play, directed by Rufus Norris, painted a much fuller portrait of him, illuminating Bevan’s journey from stuttering boy, via coal miner and union leader, to the charismatic orator who nationalised the health service.⁸

Patricia Wilkie remembers the contributions of her late friend, Charlotte Williamson, an eminent author, patient activist, and at one point chair of the Royal College of General Practitioner’s own patient liaison group.⁹

Adventures in cyberspace

Tim Senior asks whether using the publicly available internet search-engine Google^TM makes GPs look stupid. As suspected, the answer is no, but this depends on how and why Google^TM is used.¹⁰ As the TV character Doctor Who regenerates so that a new actor can play the role, Alex Burrell takes on Yonder this issue, after adding his thanks to Ahmed Rashid. Yonder shines a light on research concerning ethics consultations (something in which primary care is relatively deficient), email consultations (where we are more proficient), and fees for medical student electives.¹¹

So, just as the TARDIS exterior in TV’s Doctor Who (a battered blue 1960s police telephone box) belies a larger interior, we invite readers of Life and Times to visit https://www.bjgplife.com for an adventure in space and theme.

References

1. Gallagher CT. Job titles in health care should be in service of patient safety, not status elevation. Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X737229.
2. Hoban B. One Big Thing. Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X736881.
3. Hoban B. Diverging at the horizon. Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X737217.
4. Khan N. How to ‘drug’ our way out of the obesity crisis (or not): the roll-out of semaglutide. Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X737241.
5. Papanikitas A. Books: Thinking About Patients. Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X737301.
6. Greenhalgh T. Books: Belly Woman. Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X737289.
7. Launer J. The Diary of a Somebody: on the banality of heroism. Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X737277.
8. Easton G. At the National Theatre: Nye. Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X737313.
9. Wilkie P. My friend, Charlotte Williamson. Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X737265.
10. Senior T. Does Google make me look more or less stupid? Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X737325.
11. Burrell A. Yonder: Thank you, Ahmed Rashid, email consultations, ethics rounds, and medical elective fees. Br J Gen Pract 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X737253.

Featured photo by Dante Candal on Unsplash.