BJGP Life – The home of general practice and family medicine

Latest

Woke up and smell the coffee!

2 October 2026

"While this issue’s Life and Times articles are not especially about race or gender, they are broadly ‘woke'. Mindfulness about the aroma of coffee or the immediacy of a dance extends into practical empathy as talking cures hyperventilation or we prepare patients to access healthcare services ... [and] into professional and political awareness."

Reluctant Poets of the Bowel

Hypertension rarely announces itself ... And dignity ... I have learnt, Is the first casualty ... Of a viral gastroenteritis

1 October 2026

Fast food and fast healthcare

Industrial medicine operates on the basis of similar assumptions to fast food and industrial farming, viewing process and outcome as all-important but neglecting context. Ben Hoban explores a metaphor with added bite.

30 September 2026

Episode 241: Does GP income meet expectations? The impact on job satisfaction

In this episode, we talk to Dr Ben Walker about the impact of income on GP job satisfaction.

29 September 2026

Opinion and Clinical

Clinical·Podcast·Videos

Episode 241: Does GP income meet expectations? The impact on job satisfaction

In this episode, we talk to Dr Ben Walker about the impact of income on GP job satisfaction.

29 September 2026

Opinion

When resilience becomes moral injury

A system that demands that clinicians distance themselves emotionally from patients and then applauds that distance as strength is not cultivating resilience; it is manufacturing moral injury.

28 September 2026

Opinion

Social justice and golden rules

We know that there are some fundamental rights and wrongs in the human world... but It is easier to make good laws than to behave well. David Misselbrook reflects.

25 September 2026

Opinion

When care feels solitary

The patient and I sat opposite each other. She brought her pain and her questions; I had a responsibility to respond. When little changed over many consultations, I began to feel alone with my own helplessness.

24 September 2026

Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

Seeing the system clearly: Why neighbourhood working needs a ‘Diagnostic first’ approach

The ambition is right, but the conditions we work in every day tell a more complicated story ... If we do not understand the conditions we are standing on, we risk building structures that collapse under their own ambition.

23 September 2026

Clinical·Podcast·Videos

Episode 240: The NHS Health Check and mortality: do they help people live longer?

In this episode, we talk to Dr Jasjot Saund about the mortality benefit of the NHS health care check.

22 September 2026

Arts·Opinion

Whilst I am here

Somewhere along this odyssey ... A rumour must have spread ... That doctors know a bit of everything ... From eyelashes to raising the dead

21 September 2026

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Clinical·Opinion

Reassurance: The missing sixth checkpoint in the consultation?

If reassurance is such an important part of general practice, why does it have so little place in how we teach the consultation?

19 September 2026

Opinion

Primary care access: it’s the workforce that opens the front door

A sustainable primary care front door relies on creating the conditions that enable staff to enter, remain and thrive within the workforce. Therefore, access needs to be considered as a workforce experience, as well as a patient outcome.

18 September 2026

Book Reviews

Book review·Opinion

Generalism in clinical practice and education, edited by Sophie Park and Kay Leedham-Green

What is a generalist? Why should this matter in medical education? Sophie Park and Kay Leedham-Green have co-edited an ostensibly free medical textbook with loads of practically useful answers.

4 mins read

Book review·Opinion

The ethical clinician, by Daniel Sokol

This book is a masterfully succinct demonstration of how to use the four principles of bioethics and allied concepts in practice, its power lies in Daniel Sokol's compelling storytelling.

4 mins read

Book review

The Quantum Gene, by Brian McKinstry

This is a plot involving geniuses, billionaires, governments, spies, academic skullduggery, corruption and eco-terrorism... solid beach reading.

2 mins read

Book review

Magnifica Humanitas: On safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence, by Pope Leo XIV

The central message of the encyclical is that humanity, with all its greatness and weakness, must never be replaced or surpassed. Technology should remain a tool that serves human beings, not a force that defines or controls them.

3 mins read

Book review·Opinion

Your health as the climate changes: Disease and death on a warming planet, by Scott G Fraser

This book is informative and shocking but also surprising. It quite literally brings home the biggest global health threat of the 21st century (so far).

3 mins read

Arts·Book review

Exhibition review: A Second Life by Tracey Emin

"Emin, through her art, has converted the chaos generated from sexual abuse and poverty in early life into a beautiful lens for us to understand ourselves and our patients better." - Hector Watson and Elizabeth Walton review Tracey Emin's A Second Life, exhibiting at Tate

3 mins read

1

Book review

Self-defence: A myth busting guide to immune health, by Daniel M Davis

...our immune system is a complex and story-laden set of ideas with implications... Naturally, all manner of amusing and occasionally annoying myths abound. There is 'healthy' and enjoyable approach to immunity in this book.

3 mins read

Book review

Book review: The Morbid Age: Britain and the Crisis of Civilization, 1919–1939

The Labour government of 1945 acted on the Beveridge report and, amongst a raft of achievements, created the welfare state and the NHS. However, the seeds of these accomplishments were planted earlier, during the morbid age.

7 mins read

Book review·Opinion

My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden

'My Fourth time, We Drowned,' challenges us to be human. As doctors we have the unique opportunity to address the injustices described in the book at an individual level.

5 mins read

Book review

Book review: The Golden Rule: Lessons in Living from a Doctor of Ageing

The Golden Rule is a 'lesson in living from a doctor of ageing' and it is full of hidden gems and pearls of wisdom from Lucy Pollock's ability to acutely observe beyond what is and isn’t being said. It exudes warmth and intelligence.

4 mins read

International

Arts·International

Teaching medicine with art: a show and tell

I have, at times and where appropriate, introduced different aspects of the humanities but find that art and poems provide, for the students, a short and often stimulating awareness of everyday life and illness.

4 mins read

Clinical·International·Opinion

Chronic subdural haematoma: reflections from a super-aged society

In an aging society, chronic subdural haematoma, increasingly sits at the intersection of ageing, falls, frailty, medication, and functional decline. A clinical reflection from Japan.

3 mins read

International·Opinion

Enough of complaining at the coffee break – It is time for action!

Advocacy is not a rock star on stage; it is a choir. It is every primary health care organisation, every family doctor, pulling in the same direction. My dream is that family medicine becomes a standard participant in every health policy conversation...

4 mins read

International·Opinion

Medical tourism: the good, the bad, and the ugly

Medical tourism doesn’t reduce NHS workload. It splits it. The funded, planned, well-resourced part of care happens elsewhere. The complications, the uncertainty, the chronic follow-up land back in general practice. Without warning. Without resource. And without anyone having agreed to it.

4 mins read

International·Opinion

Wielding a double-edged sword: how can learners use AI well in reflection?

Dialogue with a supervisor is precious, but there are physical limits to how often and how long it can occur. AI was always available, ready to work through my reflections whenever I needed.

3 mins read

Long Read

Oblivion, Ageing, Disability, and the Quiet Architecture of Erasure

BJGP Long Read

At 75 years of age in New Zealand, David Hill has to renew his driver’s licence. He considers how what would seem to be just a routine administrative act carries a deeper meaning because it is not just about safety but about scrutiny and suspicion

9 mins read

What we count, and what we miss: a case for measuring GP workload differently

BJGP Long Read·Bright Ideas and Innovation·Opinion

The publisher of the national workload metric is telling us the metric is incomplete -the number that drives contract negotiations, workforce planning, commissioning, and the political conversation about general practice. We're managing a workforce crisis with a yardstick its own producers admit cannot do the

6 mins read

The ethics of looking after family and friends, a call for more helpful guidance and education

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

Being a doctor when a loved one is ill can be a very difficult place to be. Guidelines do not generally reflect the reality on the ground and in the main emphasise the negative aspects of intervening. Monica Aquilina reflects on the issues...

9 mins read

5

Ambivalent care: when patients feel unheard and unsupported

BJGP Long Read·Opinion

As a clinician, do you find it challenging to treat patients with symptoms that are difficult to understand, explain or manage?

11 mins 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

Trainees and students

The computer will see you now

AiT·Opinion

Yes, trainees will feel more comfortable learning in the AI realm, That is where many of us now live. Role play was always frightening and more so now.

2 mins read

When good doctors fail exams

AiT·Opinion

One lesson many trainees learn too late is that medicine cannot be our entire identity ... Because when our entire identity depends on our performance, every setback becomes a crisis.

4 mins read

Between FOMO and FOBO: A GP’s Search for “Enough”

AiT·Opinion

No matter how much we carry out, there is always somebody doing something bigger. And if we are not careful, we begin to measure our worth against impossible standards.

3 mins read

1

Teaching the art of noticing – a poem

AiT·Arts·Opinion

I noticed that you started the conversation ... before she sat down...

1 min read

1

AI detection in GP training – A hidden burden on supervisors

AiT·Opinion

As generative AI tools become more powerful and accessible, concerns about the authenticity of reflective writing are growing. Can we recognise AI‑generated text? How do we know whether a reflection is truly a learner’s own thinking?

3 mins read

BJGP Interviews

BJGP Interviews Podcast

BJGP TV | Research

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BJGP conference highlights, 2026

Visualised podcast – BJGP Top 10

BJGP Top 10 research 2025

BJGP Research & Publishing Conference 2026

Qualitative research: key theoretical concepts – preview

Qualitative research keynote at BJGP conference 2025

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Trainees and students

BJGP Interviews

BJGP Interviews Podcast

BJGP TV | Research

Recent Posts

BJGP News and Editorial Comment