Whether you want to walk, run, volunteer or cheer on your friends and family, parkrun is a great way to do regular exercise, get you out the house, build a healthy routine and give your mental health a boost. Free to take part, you just need to register online – it’s the perfect way to…

In spite of a pathological hatred of school PE, I’ve always enjoyed exercise. As a young adult, I’d happily attend two or three exercise classes per week, but time and children got the better of me and I lapsed into couch potato habits. In later years, a colleague and I walked at lunchtime. Well, we…

Menopause is an issue that affects over half of the population at some point in their lives. More than 75% of females will experience menopausal symptoms, with over 25% suffering severely, which may impact their day-to-day life as well as their performance. With a significant percentage of general practice staff being female, it is likely…

It’s frightening to learn that one in four of England’s population is classed as inactive, meaning they do less than 30 minutes of moderate physical activity each week – that’s under five minutes a day! Inactivity is one of the leading causes of preventable early death, and the IGPM team regularly see the negative impact of…

The Clinical Guidance Document – Patient Immunisation has just been updated and there’s a question that often gets asked as there’s so much conflicting information in it – that is, what vaccines can an HCA or HCSW (Healthcare Support Worker) actually undertake? Background Firstly, I must point out that there’s little guidance on this from the…

There has probably never been a more critical time to promote cervical screening to your eligible patient base as this week marks the annual Cervical Screening Awareness Week. In the UK, 5 million women are invited for screening every year, but inevitably, with the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, tests have been postponed and cancelled.…

Remember Phil’s ‘Kung Flu Fighting’ blog two flu seasons ago? If only we knew then what we know now, maybe we’d have stockpiled even more toilet rolls as we fast approach meltdown in this new pandemic. This time it’s a cousin of Olly MERS, or is it Olly SARS, that’s causing the global stock markets…