Andrew Papanikitas is Deputy Editor of the BJGP.
‘Wassail’ is an apt greeting to a medical journal community — it derives from the Old English was hál, meaning ‘be hale’ or ‘be in good health’. The wassailing tradition comes in many varieties. The best known, orchard wassailing, involves visiting orchards and fruit trees on Twelfth Night or Old Twelfth Night to sing songs and make a hullabaloo (often by banging pots and pans) to ward off bad spirits from the orchard. Anticipating a bountiful crop in the coming year, the orchard’s owner will offer the wassailers a warm spiced drink such as cider or mulled apple juice from a communal ‘wassail bowl’.1
A dance to the music of time
As we wassail the new year, Emma Ladds is prompted by the retirement of a colleague to reflect on the nature and value of time. Industrialised societies become ever more obsessed with speed and efficiency, overlooking the value of time itself, and the benefits of investing it.2 The commodification of time comes with tangible harms. Tasneem Khan channels an adverse effect of time pressure on GPs in a poem on decision fatigue, ‘Seventy-five blood results – forty-one times “okay”. Thirty-two times “must do something”. Two times “oh #&%$”.’ 3 Emilie Couchman warns us of the health consequences in double-accounting time in a portfolio career where every employer expects more than 100%. Even when patients fail to notice, the harms to clinicians are real and wrong.4 Simon Tobin makes the argument that becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), a higher category of RCGP affiliation for GPs who go above and beyond the expected standard in a variety of ways, is worth the time. In part this is time recognised rather than unsung. In part it offers a way to focus future time in meaningful activity — and re-ignite a career that may feel more like serving time.5
A healthy curriculum — spending time wisely!
A curriculum ‘presents a reasoned picture of the subject to be studied’ as well as the teaching and learning processes, and the learning outcomes of that study.6 According to Terry Kemple, the RCGP curriculum sets out the knowledge, skills, and attitudes GPs need. It also acts as the main framework for GP specialty training, explaining what doctors need to learn, why it matters, and how it should be taught.7 Ben Hoban reminds us that practice ought to be far more than an algorithmic enactment of guidelines. A mindful sense of professionalism contributes to both patient safety and a meaningful career.8 A good approach to learning should also acknowledge that the syllabus changes with time and place. In the first Yonder of 2026, Alex Burrell extends our syllabus (a list of topics worthy of study) on themes of social prescribing, asking about drug allergies, commercial primary care pricing, and HbA1c variability.9 Paul McNamara and Megan Glover share insights from Deep End practice on the health consequences of ketamine use as a cheap and hazardous party drug.10
Facing the future
Our book reviews focus on a perennial existential threat — automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Euan Lawson reviews a scary book about AI, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: The Case Against Superintelligent AI. Most of this comes down to what is known as the alignment problem. This is the requirement that when we build a superintelligent AI we need to make sure it isn’t hostile — don’t lose hope, this is still possible!11 I review A Doctor’s Bag for Tomorrow: Packed with Apps, AI and Good Old Fashioned Eye Contact, two Danish doctors’ affable manifesto for a Danish general practice enabled by digital technologies. You may want to move to Denmark after reading it.12
A time for reconnection
Jorge L Polo-Sabau discusses the awkward but necessary return of the handshake in making medical practice feel more human, in the wake of the ban on touching mandated by the coronavirus.13 Carter Singh reminds us that in a world of racist and ethnic fragmentation, the GP consultation remains one of the civic spaces where empathy and trust still hold currency. The NHS must once again become a sanctuary — not only for patients, but also for those who serve within it.14
As we wassail 2026, I want to thank our fantastic editorial and administrative team at the BJGP, and all our readers and contributors in 2025, and look forward to another bountiful year of insights, reflections, wisdom, history, and stories. Whether you are a reader or writer, let’s face the future together.
References
1. Vowden G. Merry and bright. National Trust Magazine 2025; Autumn: 48-54
2. Ladds E. The value of time. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X743937.
3. Khan T. Poem: On decision fatigue. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X743973.
4. Couchman E. Balance, boundaries, and burnout. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X744057.
5. Tobin S. Fellowship re-ignited my GP career: could it do the same for yours? Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X744009.
6. Grant J. Principles of curriculum design. In: Swanwick T, Forrest K, O’Brien BC. Understanding medical education. 3rd edn. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2019; 71-88.
7. Kemple T. The RCGP curriculum. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X743949.
8. Hoban B. Knowledge, wisdom, and following the blue line. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X743961.
9. Burrell A. Yonder: Social prescribing, asking about drug allergies, commerical primary care pricing, and HbA1c variability. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X744045.
10. McNamara P, Glover M. Ketamine: when the party’s over. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X743985.
11. Lawson E. Books: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: The Case Against Superintelligent AI. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X744021.
12. Papanikitas A. Books: A Doctor’s Bag for Tomorrow: Packed with Apps, AI and Good Old Fashioned Eye Contact. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X744033.
13. Polo-Sabau JL. Shaking hands again. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X743925.
14. Singh C. Reflections on racism, civility, and the role of general practice. Br J Gen Pract 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp26X743997.
Featured photo: Saltram House Wassail, 17th January 2015 by Brian Marks. © CC BY 2.0
