Recently I had a patient who wanted to speak to me. No surprise there; we all have them. Every. Joyous. Day… This was a man who’d arrived for his appointment before we’d even opened and stood 3mm away from the practice door glaring at us to be let in. After spending half of his 20-minute…

A new strategy in England could seek a significant reduction in GP referrals – but it will need cooperation from primary care, it has emerged. The proposals are being developed by senior officers at the Royal College of Physicians for NHS England and would see a big increase in the use of “advice and guidance”.…

General practice was an important place for individuals seeking help for domestic abuse and violence during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study has found. Researchers, led by Dr Elizabeth Emsley, of Bristol Medical School, sought to understand the patient perspective of seeking and receiving help for domestic abuse and violence (DVA) in…

Relationships and advocacy are at the core of women’s health – but threats to these values and skills could undermine the service practices provide, a new study concludes today. The research, by Oxford University, concludes that care is needed to ensure service configuration changes do not result in clinician deskilling or making services inaccessible for…

Practice staff are deeply concerned about safety – but only relief from pressures will help them improve it, a leading GP has warned following World Patient Safety Day yesterday. The World Health Organization adopted a theme of “engaging patients” for the day, echoing the steps in the UK to introduce a Martha’s Law. The Londonwide…

Scores, aggregates, and ratings. Three words that many of us associate with sport; I could be writing about rugby but alas, that isn’t the feature of this blog. As Brian O’Driscoll once said, “rugby takes its toll”, and the same can be said for the CQC. How many changes are we going to have to…

The first key question asked by the CQC is “Are services safe?”. By safe, they mean are people protected from abuse and avoidable harm? If we look at the description of safe from a quality statement perspective, it states: “Safety is a priority for everyone and leaders embed a culture of openness and collaboration. People…