A charity that supports UK Forces veterans is encouraging healthcare professionals in primary and secondary care to prescribe the employment support it provides. The Poppy Factory is hoping to generate more engagement from doctors following a positive evaluation of one of its employment programmes for ex-Forces patients. Between 2021 and 2022, nearly 200 ex-Forces patients…

Scottish GP leaders have reported chronic shortages of doctors in a new survey, linking it to growing abuse of staff. The British Medical Association warned of a shortage of more than 300 GPs after more than a third of practices reported having vacancies. In the survey, some 42% of GPs said demand was “substantially” exceeding…

Practices in England are to get full rights to send patients with vague cancer-linked symptoms for direct testing, it was announced today. NHS England claimed the moved could enable early diagnosis of tens of thousands of cancers while GP leaders praised it as a “positive step”. Under the new rules, GPs and other practice staff…

A veteran is defined as “anyone who has served for at least one day in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces (Regular or Reserve) or Merchant Mariners who have seen duty on legally defined military operations”. And today (Friday) is Armistice Day; at the 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month in 1918, the…

As winter approaches and GP practice workload spirals upwards, practices are now facing another new target over how quickly they should be seeing patients. During her brief time as health and social care secretary, Thérèse Coffey announced that GP practices would be expected to meet a target of booking all appointments within a fortnight of…

More than a fifth of general practice premises are “not fit for purpose,” according to a new survey. The NHS Confederation yesterday called on the Government to provide extra investment to step up the modernisation and building of clinics. Rundown buildings and shortages of computers, phones and other basic equipment mean that new primary care…

A controversial project aimed at creating a single research database of GP records has suffered major budget cuts, it has been revealed. The programme was due to have a budget of £8.8 million this year – but this has been cut to £2.5 million by NHS England, the Health Service Journal reported. The ‘General Practice…