Using the term primary care to mean general practice causes confusion and harm, argues Denis Pereira Gray […]
Denis Pereira Gray: Down with “primary care,” up with “general practice”
Category: NHS
Chris Moulton: NHS urgent and emergency care is in the midst of a crisis
Today’s report from NHS Providers on NHS winter pressures bears out what the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has been saying for some time—urgent and emergency care is in the midst of a crisis and facing very serious challenges if patients are to be kept safe. Performance has continued to worsen to the poorest levels on […]
Sian Griffiths: Inequality matters
Reducing health inequalities, even in affluent areas, needs to be a priority for government and society, say Sian Griffiths and colleagues […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS 9: Information technology—from black hole to the best in Scotland
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature article provides a summary. When I visited Dumfries and Galloway in 1999, information technology was described as “a black hole.” The hospital didn’t have electronic […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS 8—Mental health services
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature article provides a summary. When I first visited Dumfries in 1980 the Crichton Royal, a psychiatric hospital, had extensive grounds and multiple buildings, including a […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS 7—Services in Stranraer are still presenting difficulties
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature article provides a summary. It is never going to be easy to provide health services in a small town that is 73 miles by a […]
Junior doctor engagement—we need to own it
The MacCraith report (2014) into medical training recognised that having junior doctors in leadership positions improved communication between hospital management and junior doctors. However, involving junior doctors in the running and management of our health service brings many benefits besides that. In 2013 the Irish health service established the lead non-consultant hospital doctor (NCHD) initiative. Lead […]
Thomas Sharp: Has NHS workforce morale reached the point of no return?
I recently read a BBC article that provided an alternative to the regular press rhetoric on NHS performance this winter; namely, that the fact the NHS has been able to perform as well as it has this winter is a miracle in the face of growing pressures and budgetary cuts. The article stressed that one reason […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS 6—developing change locally
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature article provides a summary. Annan is the third biggest town in Dumfries and Galloway, in the East of the Region, and so the least remote. […]
Sebastian Walsh: Medically fit, awaiting social
“Patient remains medically fit for discharge. Plan: Awaiting social.” On countless times during my foundation year 1 I wrote words to that effect in patients’ notes during ward rounds. It is an all too familiar tale. An elderly person is admitted to hospital with an acute illness, which is treated, but the patient is judged […]