My heart goes out to all of us, who have been 'set up to fail'. Take heart and glove up - the work must go on... A poem by Rebecca Quinn
The place of Medicine in our imagined future, science fiction, tends to be defined by technology. As in science fiction, so in medicine there is a constant tension between the technological and the human, what is possible and what is desirable.
Sharing my humanity with your humanity, in snapshots, journeying together over a lifetime. That is the essence of the general practice that I know, love and hate simultaneously. Kathleen Wenaden reflects...
I always walk home from work. It gets me moving after 10 hours of mostly sitting in other people’s heads. My walk home is an oasis of no small talk, no confusion, no hidden agendas...
Careful, caring and person-centred application of guidance is required to ensure patients benefit from, and are not harmed by, healthcare. I’d like to talk about Joan, an 86-year-old lady who had rarely visited the surgery. We threw the guidelines at her...
...After a long day being your child’s GP, I come home. I get a few tantrums, followed by a cuddle 10 minutes later. I am a mum, just like you.
Are GP practices equipped to respond to the current mental health crisis? Here, Jonathan Coates and Nick Hartley reflect on a recent pilot of the role of GP clinical psychologists in primary care - "an experienced, senior clinician independently handling undifferentiated presentations
Dr Somebody* is a fictional late middle aged, mild to moderately burnout GP Partner in North London; he is suspicious about the current managerial changes in the NHS; his motto however is "contented with little, yet wishing for more", and at heart
My parents being immigrants, enforced into us to keep our heads down and work hard, to adopt a ‘don’t cause trouble’ attitude... Being called these occasional names I still performed well academically at school, it never placed limits. Life was good …
...it wasn’t until I became sick myself that I really understood what it meant to be a patient, or indeed those wider principles I tried to root my own practice in. For me, that once watertight seal between clinician and clinic was
What is my take on carers? They deny they need a medal for what they do. I now have the awareness and the greatest respect for these unsung heroes. For me. I will continue to care for Mavis, to do whatever I
Newshound: Thanks for agreeing to see me, doctor…
Subject: John, it's just John these days. I appreciate your making the trip. Did anyone try to stop you?
(Dystopian satire from Ben Hoban)
We shared four YouTube links to commercials from department stores and supermarkets of Christmas past and present –We asked all the group to view all of the short films in advance and then discussed them with members taking it in turns to
These are five small 'stocking-filler' books that you might see in a bookshop or a charity shop. They are all short and readable, and small enough to fit into most Christmas stockings. They all importantly have some inspiration and wisdom with which
My love for those who could not help themselves was fuelled by passion,
As medicine became my way of helping them with care and compassion.
A few minutes when they were outside, they started hearing the sounds of police cars and sirens and a loud deep droning noise, like a distant thunder, with the police obviously making their way to the ICAC... But it was too late
Gareth came round with the checklist and electronic timesheet and held the face scanner in front of each of their faces in turn to register their arrival... speculative fiction by Georgia Avon (Part 2)
Doctors are inordinately fond of nouns. By and large, patients come to us not just with nouns, but with stories which include them but are driven along by verbs, words of action, backed up by adverbs, pronouns, and so on...
...the term GP, she remembered that had previously existed, had been changed to IHP – Integrated Health Practitioner - in 2026 by the RCPHP... speculative fiction by Georgia Avon (Part 1)
Tom Brett had known Martha as a patient for fifteen years. Widowed for over 25 years, she had moved from the family farm to settle in the city close to her children...
So anyway, I left by the COVID door under cover of a virtual PCN meeting, figuring that by the time anyone noticed the urine samples building up at reception I’d be long gone. I’d heard of a guy with the kind of
Alexandre Dumas’s 19th century French novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, doesn’t usually make the list of standard medical texts but perhaps it should not be so readily dismissed. It captures the spirit of an age when medicine was undergoing a revolution...
Serena Strickland reflects on the effect of an avian visitor on a GP practice
‘Yes dad, a little dash like normal.’ I never knew how to reply. Was he asking a question? Was he just making a statement, did he even want milk in it? Had he forgotten how he had his tea? I never knew
The waves of nausea as I lay in the hotel bed were incessant. Away on a long-planned holiday to New York with my partner, the morning sickness had hit at week 6 of my pregnancy ...
You and I may observe the same event but give different accounts based on our own understanding of what we’ve seen, influenced by how we felt, our past experiences and values. Ben Hoban discusses storytelling as a clinical phenomenon.
Ben Hoban reflects on general practice as a 'Hero's journey,' but argues that this must be reconciled with the patient narrative. Don your narrative bifocals!
How is it that something can seem so obvious in hindsight, when at the time it was anything but obvious? Ben Hoban shows us his retrospectoscope!
John Brooks discusses the experiences, the writings, the politics and the health of George Orwell
Are you a healthcare professional looking for a creative community of writers? Neil Wilson introduces the Society of Medical Writers
Aldis H. Petriceks finds a sense of primary care at an unsuccessful resuscitation in the surgical ICU
For Arthur Kaufman, a visit to the dentist inspired a literary journey in creative writing. Could you be inspired to do better?
Samar Razaq shares a parable of travellers in search of health and in fear of disease
This is now the second time Max Phobius has saved the world in time for Christmas. It's all beginning to look a bit unlikely.......
Chloe Webster, a trainee, reflects on a "Formula One speed" surgical ward round where she suddenly rediscovered the magic of General Practice.
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. This is part five of a five part series. You can download the full five part version for free as an epub or mobi file for use with your Kindle or other e-reader. Stave
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. This is part four of a five part series. If you can’t wait and like to binge read then you can download the full five part version for free as an epub or mobi
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. This is part three of a five part series. If you can’t wait and like to binge read then you can download the full five part version for free as an epub or mobi
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. This is part two of a five part series. If you can’t wait and like to binge read then you can download the full five part version for free as an epub or mobi file for
Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. This is part one of a five part series. If you can’t wait and like to binge read then you can download the full five part version for free as an epub or mobi