BJGP Life – The home of general practice and family medicine

Latest

Listening under pressure: A proposed rethinking the short GP appointment

26 March 2026

To focus on what GPs can control, we propose the L₂O framework, a synthesis of Listening, Listenability, and Observation so that everyone gets more out of the 10 minutes.

Episode 229: Looking back at the BJGP Research Conference 2026

In this episode, we look back at the recent BJGP conference.

24 March 2026

2025: the Larkins Lotto resolved

"I can see what has happened. Marj and I have known each other for years. I appreciate this is unusual given national policy promoting episodic care as it does. She has sometimes had to submit requests many times, she tells

23 March 2026

Green Impact for health one year on: Did City and Hackney practices keep going ?

The past year shows that environmental sustainability can survive beyond contractual requirements, but it doesn’t happen automatically.

21 March 2026

Opinion and Clinical

Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

Green Impact for health one year on: Did City and Hackney practices keep going ?

The past year shows that environmental sustainability can survive beyond contractual requirements, but it doesn’t happen automatically.

21 March 2026

Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

AI in primary care: Secretary, not physician

The difference is crucial. When LLMs are used to structure and summarise known information, they augment human expertise. When they are used to generate new clinical interpretations in high-stakes settings, the limitations of human–AI interaction become more apparent.

20 March 2026

Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

AI does not ‘say.’ – Implications of using anthropomorphic language to describe AI use

In meetings where ideation or problem solving is required, how long is it before a colleague exclaims, “I put (our question) into AI and it says this”? Camille Gajria examines the AI-phant in the room.

19 March 2026

Opinion

Time is the physics of care

"Time is not simply a tool for scheduling health care; it is the very medium through which care’s quality, safety, and justice are realised. It compresses attention, creates inertia, imposes thresholds, and dissipates energy. If we want to understand why care sometimes

18 March 2026

Clinical·Podcast·Videos

Episode 228: Skill mix and patient trust in general practice

In this episode, we talk to Dr Charlotte Paddison about the increasing multidisciplinary team in general practice.

17 March 2026

Opinion·Research

Yonder: ethnic inequalities in breast cancer, denigration of general practice, knee braces, healthcare on release from prison

Alex Burrell discusses ethnic inequalities in breast cancer, denigration of general practice, knee braces, and healthcare on release from prison.

16 March 2026

Opinion

Good enough should be good enough

In medicine, as in motherhood, the pursuit of perfect can eclipse the practice of present.

15 March 2026

Opinion

The urgent need to rebuild England’s school nursing workforce

School nurses are described as essential to promoting health, reducing inequalities, and supporting school attendance. The contrast between this expanded mandate and the reality of the workforce is stark.

13 March 2026

International·Opinion

Not alone, but unseen: hypothermia in an ageing home

Accidental hypothermia is rarely dramatic. It does not announce itself with urgency or spectacle. Instead, it accumulates quietly through the night, until it finally becomes visible in the early hours, when someone realises that something is wrong.

12 March 2026

Book Reviews

Arts·Book review

The waiting room: poetry and publishings from over a decade in the NHS, by Giles Dawnay

This is a self published collection of writings by Giles Dawnay that comprises some haunting poetry and published writings in (among others) The Guardian, The BMJ and the BJGP, on themes that we ignore at our collective peril.

2 mins read

1

Book review·International

Wonderful and Broken: The Complex Reality Of Primary Care In the United States by Troyen A. Brennan

Troyen Brennan explores the complexities of the United States’ (US's) primary care with its multiple systems of funding and its absence of universal health care cover and finds that primary care is wonderful but broken...

3 mins read

Arts·Book review

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

In many respects, Kelson embodies the idealised GP of cultural consciousness: an easy-to-talk-to, principled eccentric... Set against the film’s graphic, meandering violence, Kelson’s permanence echoes reassuring familiarity.

1 min read

Book review·Opinion

Icarus Plummeting

Zigmond mercilessly describes the ways in which our healthcare systems have made us less able to listen to the patient’s experience, less able to see their experience in the context of their life, their family and their social circumstances.

2 mins read

Book review

Book review: How Animals Heal Us

"How Animals Heal Us is a deeply heartfelt work from an author with lived experience of both devastating mental ill health and the restorative power of animal friendship. It contains uplifting and joyful anecdotes of animal companionship and ministration. It is also, at times, a

2 mins read

Book review

Book review: Psychology’s Quiet Conservatism: How a Supposedly Woke Science Promotes Capitalism and Protects Privilege

"I can only recommend this wide-ranging and rich book to any doctor interested in psychology, as you may find (like I did) that you will learn a lot more about psychology (and our current social climate) than you could do from any psychology textbook ..."

2 mins read

Book review·Opinion

Give me HRT: a reflection on the BBC’s Riot Women

The BBC’s Riot Women shows us a snippet of the lives of five women navigating the menopause and forming a rock band.

2 mins read

Book review

The Leopard in my House, by Mark Steel

The shared human experience... makes it a compelling and worthwhile read... also for those affected directly by cancer or friends and relatives caring for them.

3 mins read

1

Book review

Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference by Rutger Bregman

Moral ambition does not mean trying to be perfect. This book is meant as a practical guide for anyone who wants to be more effective in making a difference.

3 mins read

1

Book review

Stranger Within: Poems & Prose, by Blair Smith

Blair Smith was a GP for twenty years before he became a professor and then a consultant in pain medicine. This lovely book reflects all these aspects of his career as well as his own personal cancer experience.

1 min read

International

International·Opinion

Not alone, but unseen: hypothermia in an ageing home

Accidental hypothermia is rarely dramatic. It does not announce itself with urgency or spectacle. Instead, it accumulates quietly through the night, until it finally becomes visible in the early hours, when someone realises that something is wrong.

3 mins read

Book review·International

Wonderful and Broken: The Complex Reality Of Primary Care In the United States by Troyen A. Brennan

Troyen Brennan explores the complexities of the United States’ (US's) primary care with its multiple systems of funding and its absence of universal health care cover and finds that primary care is wonderful but broken...

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·International·Opinion

Primary care in a destroyed health system: reflections on a deployment to Gaza

Each mission has taught me something different about medicine in low-resource settings, but Gaza has presented challenges unlike anything I've encountered before. The conflict in Gaza has resulted in the near-total collapse of the healthcare system.

4 mins read

International·Opinion

When normal tests end care too early

Medicine is remarkably effective at identifying disease. Yet when symptoms persist without a clear diagnosis, it often falters—not because knowledge is lacking, but because legitimacy quietly evaporates.

3 mins read

BJGP Long Read·International·Opinion

A Gaza medical Student, a GP Surgery in Darlaston, and the quiet influence of general practice

As GPs, we often meet people at points of disruption - when plans collapse and the future suddenly feels unclear. We sit with that complexity daily: listening, and identifying what next steps might be possible.

3 mins read

Long Read

Medical societies in the 19th Century: How they influenced general practice

BJGP Long Read·Stories

Many of these societies may be historical relics, but their contribution to the development of general practice in the nineteenth century should not be forgotten.

7 mins read

Undervalued and unsustainable: The economic reality of GP minor surgery services

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

When the price of a portion of fish and chips has tripled in 20 years but the tariff for a joint injection remains static, something has gone seriously wrong with how we value general practice.

5 mins read

23

We need to talk about dying

BJGP Long Read

"Taking dying and death out of the solely medical domain, becoming joint partners in caring for the dying patient in the broadest sense, facilitates personalised and holistic care, and creates opportunity for a more relational and compassionate interaction ..."

15 mins read

On becoming: Empathy at the deep end

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Empathy is not a luxury. It is the ground on which healing relationships are built — and the ground on which we remain whole.

3 mins read

1

A note on educators’ notes: why GP training programmes in the UK needs clearer, fairer assessment governance

AiT·BJGP Long Read·Opinion

GP training programmes must balance two imperatives: protecting patients and supporting the development of hardworking, reflective clinicians. To achieve this, the establishment relies heavily on narrative assessment tools...

3 mins read

Trainees and students

A note on educators’ notes: why GP training programmes in the UK needs clearer, fairer assessment governance

AiT·BJGP Long Read·Opinion

GP training programmes must balance two imperatives: protecting patients and supporting the development of hardworking, reflective clinicians. To achieve this, the establishment relies heavily on narrative assessment tools...

3 mins read

Enhancing qFIT bowel screening uptake in deprived areas

BJGP Long Read·Opinion·Undergraduate

This is what Andrea Williamson and colleagues have termed missingness: The systematic absence of certain groups from health data, services, and outcomes. Those who do not return their kits are not a random group — they are often the very patients carrying the highest burden

4 mins read

Are we judging GP registrars on their outfits?

AiT·BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Professionalism may not be a discrete domain on the mark scheme, yet it shapes how registrars are assessed, creating a standard that remains open to personal interpretation. And when that interpretation is shaped by assumptions about religion, culture, gender, or identity, attire can become an

3 mins read

1

Mutual mentorship: A hidden strength in general practice

AiT·BJGP Long Read·Opinion

We’ve come to believe that at any stage of training or career, every GP has the potential to be both mentor and mentee; it is a reciprocal relationship that fosters self-reflection, career development, and personal growth for all involved.

3 mins read

Caring for my grandmother: A resident doctor’s personal experience of end-of-life caregiving in the community

AiT·BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Many have discussed the challenges informal caregivers face with end-of-life care in the community... By recounting my experience, I hope to add further insight from the perspective of a resident doctor acting in this role.

6 mins read

1

BJGP Interviews

BJGP Interviews Podcast

BJGP TV | Research

1

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BJGP conference highlights, 2026

Visualised podcast – BJGP Top 10

Urine testing for cervical screening

Trust in health professionals

BJGP Top 10 research 2025

Professor Martin Marshall at the BJGP Research Conference

1

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Trainees and students

BJGP Interviews

BJGP Interviews Podcast

BJGP TV | Research

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BJGP News and Editorial Comment