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Peter Aird

BJGP Long Read: Mistakes and responsibilities

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. This week I recalled a study day that I went to some years ago. Suitably interactive, involving a variety of teaching styles and fully addressing a personally relevant learning need, it was the best
10 December 2019
8 mins read

Somewhere over the rainbow

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. Judy Garland’s was not a happy life. Last weekend I went to see Renée Zellweger in ‘Judy’. It’s a remarkable performance in a film that portrays Judy Garland towards the end of her tragically
29 October 2019
5 mins read
Models of Laurel and Hardy on a bench

I’ll miss this when we are gone

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. There’s a scene in Stan and Ollie, the film about Laurel and Hardy when towards the end of the film, Hardy says to Laurel: “I’ll miss this when we’re gone”. He speaks the words,
19 August 2019
4 mins read
1
Ferris wheel and dark sky

Vanity Fair: growing wise and finding my reward

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. General practice – the story so far: Last week many of us tried to satisfy our appraisers by proving that we had met their unilaterally determined and arbitrarily applied indicators of satisfactory professional development.
1 July 2019
2 mins read
1

Be drunk and not a ‘martyred slave of time’

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. How about impressing your appraiser with this as one of your PDP goals for the coming year: ‘Be drunk’. Charles Baudelaire (1821 – 1867) wrote: “You have to be always drunk. That’s all there
12 March 2019
2 mins read

A BJGP Christmas Carol: Part Five

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
21 December 2018
9 mins read
2

A BJGP Christmas Carol: Part Four

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
20 December 2018
8 mins read
1

A BJGP Christmas Carol: Part Three

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
19 December 2018
8 mins read
1

A BJGP Christmas Carol: Part Two

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
18 December 2018
7 mins read
1

A BJGP Christmas Carol: Part One

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
17 December 2018
6 mins read
5

Sense and sensitivity

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. It is a truth universally acknowledged that fast and cheap won’t be good. Because good things take time to mature – they come about slowly. Be it a fine wine, a meaningful relationship or
30 October 2018
3 mins read

Life is a dance: Blaming it on the boogie

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. Recently The Guardian, and others, reported that doctors were alarmed that an online test which estimated cardiological health revealed that 78% of adults had a heart age older than their chronological age and were,
25 September 2018
4 mins read
2

Do we care about sadness?

“All men seek happiness, this is without exception”. So wrote Blaise Pascal in his Pensées. But despite his assertion, and our best efforts, too many of us, it seems, find only sadness. In such circumstances we may well feel useless, but that's
18 July 2018
4 mins read
1

Aristotle and general practice: What do good doctors do?

Aristotle had it right when he asserted in his 'Metaphysics' that 'Those who wish to succeed must ask the right preliminary question'. More than 2000 years later, doctors would do well to listen to his advice. Before adopting each and every new
14 June 2018
4 mins read
1

Advanced Access – a step in the wrong direction

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. If the recent film ‘The Darkest Hour’ is anything to go by, Winston Churchill would have liked a ‘Drinks by the Dram’ Advent Calendar – available last December on Amazon for a shilling short
31 May 2018
4 mins read
1

The Uncomfortable Professional

The professionalism of general practitioners continues to be undermined as increasingly we are treated as naughty children who need to be brought into line. We need to make collective decisions on how to practice based on what we know as GPs to
27 February 2018
4 mins read
7

Tough times for doctors and the best case fallacy

When the going gets tough, what about those who don’t feel tough enough to keep going? Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. Recently I watched the BBC adaption of ‘Little Women’. Despite the fact that it wasn’t the kind of
16 January 2018
6 mins read
3

Why I am still fighting for general practice

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. GP practices are closing at an alarming rate with more and more GPs abandoning the profession as workload rises exponentially and recruitment continues to struggle to keep up with the number of
8 December 2017
7 mins read
1

Being patient-centred – who are we trying to please?

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. This week I’ve received some good news. I’ve been ‘liked’ by the GMC. Well I say liked, I mean of course ‘revalidated’ but it comes to the same thing. I posted a few comments
12 March 2015
3 mins read

The NHS – ‘S’ is for Service not Slave

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. It’s a confusing time for the NHS. One minute there’s talk of if being ‘weaponised’ like some all consuming superhero, the next it’s being sent to bed with no supper for causing all those
20 February 2015
3 mins read

Introducing GPs Anonymous

Peter Aird is a GP in Bridgwater, Somerset. Is it just me or is being a GP increasingly being portrayed as something for which one ought to be ashamed? If so, then perhaps we should consider if we need some help. With
13 January 2015
2 mins read