Primary care could face a wave of reform in its funding systems as the government seeks to make budgets stretch further, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer has revealed. Jeremy Hunt was pressed by MPs about his intentions for the NHS when he gave his Parliamentary statement yesterday, reversing many of the policies proposed by…

A new analysis, published today, supports the benefits of improving access to blood tests in primary care for patients who may have cancer. The issue has become a key problem for practices, faced with pressure to identify patients at risk whilst not overloading hospitals with referrals or risking patients facing delays after referral. A study…

Time is running out for the UK to retain hundreds of newly qualified GPs caught in a visa trap, the Royal College of GPs has warned. The college has made a new appeal to Home Secretary Suella Braverman to solve the problem, which requires GPs from overseas to get a sponsor after they complete their…

England is to get a thousand GP assistants to help reduce the workload facing doctors, it has been announced. The news was welcomed by the Royal College of GPs, which warned it should not be seen as a substitute for improving GP numbers. The GP assistants are to help with paperwork and to undertake basic…

Practice staff have been encouraged to be careful of hackers and cyberattacks and now an expert has shared a range of tips to protect systems. Mike Fell, Executive Director of National Cyber Security Operations at NHS Digital since April 2022, gave advice as part of international Cyber Security Awareness Month this October. He warns that…

Some UK newspapers declared a “war” on GPs because of their use of remote consultations, it was alleged today. Professor Trish Greenhalgh, of Oxford University, said some depicted remote GP consultations negatively and this resulted in politically driven campaigns for a return to face-to-face care. However, these campaigns ignored the challenges and workforce shortages that…

Ensuring patients experience personal continuity dependent on the characteristics of the practice and the patient and, in particular, on practice size, researchers report today. Interviews with ten practices in The Netherlands, combined with real-life data from 269,478 patients from 48 Dutch practices between 2013 and 2018, found that a larger number of usual GPs working…