Category: General practice / family medicine, UK

When medical consultations go wrong it’s sometimes because the doctor didn’t listen, and instead of…

Yes—Azeem MajeedThe intense micromanagement of general practices by NHS England since the start of the…

As the season turns and the days begin to lengthen, it is traditional to look…

More than half of the general practices in England would be willing to withdraw from…

Easy and convenient access to a GP must be a good thing, and that’s arguably…

Listening to Azeem Rafiq’s testimony to MPs about institutional racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club,1…

Over the past few months, in response to stories about GP shortages, I’ve seen many…

Poverty is a deadly condition. We don’t need to look to faraway countries ravaged by…

Richard Vautrey stepped down as UK and England chair of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee…

One of the joys of general practice is the variety it offers. The clinical breadth…

We’re at a crossroads in general practice. The work is relentless, and the workforce is…

The government won’t be able to fulfil its commitment to increase the number of GPs…

A national focus is needed on the potential dangers of allergies, including the appointment of…

GPs have overwhelmingly rejected Sajid Javid’s rescue package for general practice, as 93% of those…

For months several UK national newspaper titles have been carrying exhortations for GPs to return…

England’s secretary of state for health and social care did not attend his face-to-face appointment…

I will soon become president of the Royal College of General Practitioners, only the second…

Health and social care services need to work harder to improve the health of homeless…

Whenever I hear discussions about patients being too quick to call a doctor, and how…

Data and process are both key. Without outcomes, however, they become yet another paperwork driven…

Plans to give ministers extensive new powers over local service changes, such as hospital closures,…

The BMA has called for an urgent meeting with England’s health and social care secretary,…

As doctors, we ask questions about weight many times a day. We may ask because…

We can probably all agree that normality, in medicine, is a good thing. When patients…

A journalist sat with me in my clinic recently to witness the nuts and bolts…

Whether we like it or not, work is what we spend most of our waking…

In our clinical work there’s always an element of surprise: we never know when our…

What’s happening?Becton Dickinson (BD), which manufactures most of the blood tubes used by the NHS,…

It’s all around you, especially if you venture into the world of social media: GPs…

Many uplifting things happen in medicine: babies are born safely, illnesses are prevented or cured,…

Medical leaders have questioned the feasibility of a £1bn (€1.17bn; $1.37bn) government recovery plan for…

Doctors have raised concerns about the effects that a shortage of blood tubes in England…

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has paused the planned publication of…

When I first became a GP registrar (having made a happy escape from a hospital…

Just over half (51%) of GPs and 30% of hospital doctors have reported experiencing verbal…

Most years, there’s a noticeable slackening in the pace of GPs’ work over the summer….

bmj;374/aug03_10/n1932/FAF1faThis portrait, by Christian Furr, of Lotte Newman, who became a Royal College of General…

On 5 July 2021 the NHS had its 73rd birthday. To mark this occasion, I—along…

General practice is at “breaking point” and needs an emergency rescue package to ensure that…

Another health and social care bill is on its way through parliament, changing yet again…

High levels of stress are severely harming the health of GPs and their ability to…

A group of GPs have told the government they will refuse to hand over patients’…

The issue of doctors’ pay is once again under the spotlight. The profession remains divided…

bmj;374/jul13_8/n1769/FAF1faMark ThomasCampaigners against NHS privatisation demonstrate outside the Department of Health and Social Care in…

People vary in their appetite for risk. Some people’s idea of fun is paragliding or…

The government is consulting on plans to align the upper age exemption for NHS prescription…

There aren’t enough GPs to meet patient demand, and we’ve been invited to plug the…

Last month an outcry erupted over comments by Dido Harding, former head of Test and…

The BMA has warned that a new weight management service will result in a “significant”…

Whenever two or three GPs of a certain age are gathered together, the subject of…