Clocks, watches, mountains, and trains. Clean Swiss efficiency. So, I was fascinated to learn about Swiss primary care when speaking at a recent conference in Lausanne; mostly single handed, still predominantly male, and with limited use of electronic records. Joining me from the UK was Stephen Campbell from Manchester, one of the architects of the […]
Tag: Primary Care
Tiago Villanueva: Cutting edge primary care in Denmark
As a locum GP, I tend to have limited contact with the permanent staff of the practices I work in, and I therefore rely almost entirely on myself to look after my professional development (there is currently no revalidation scheme for doctors in Portugal). Once a year I try to visit and shadow a prominent […]
Martin McShane: Integrated reflections concluded
Here is my third and final blog on the USA trip: After Seattle’s integrated care organisations, we visited CalPERS. They fund $6.7bn worth of healthcare for 1.3 million people (roughly twice what we have per person in Lincolnshire). They see themselves as “active” purchasers: managing the market to reduce costs. About two thirds of their members […]
Martin McShane: One small step
Back in May 2010 the professional executive committee and NHS Lincolnshire board agreed to delegate the management of the minor surgery local enhanced service to the practice based commissioning (PBC) Groups. A lot of discussion and analysis had taken place prior to this decision. Practices had said that the historical budget was insufficient to meet […]
Domhnall MacAuley: My big fat gypsy wedding
The TV programme My big fat gypsy wedding made me cringe. We cared for a large community of travelling people for many years and I felt embarrassed on their behalf. Some traveller women I spoke to felt let down by these programmes. The cold documentary eye made the lavish weddings and extraordinary dresses look absurd. They […]
Tiago Villanueva: Quaternary prevention and disease mongering
One of the major advantages of being an active member of listservers, particularly international ones, is that I am in touch with leading colleagues around the world, and also I can learn about issues and think in ways that I would not otherwise have become aware of. I’ve had the chance to cross paths a few times with Dr […]
Research highlights – 11 March 2011
“Research highlights” is a weekly round-up of research papers appearing in the print BMJ. We start off with this week’s research questions, before providing more detail on some individual research papers and accompanying articles. Is ethnicity related to academic performance in doctors and medical students trained in the UK? Does weekly ultrasound treatment improve hard […]
Martin Dawes: Health research: what’s in a name?
Every year my family tease me about going to NAPCRG, the North American Primary Care Research Group. This is pronounced “nap crag” and it does not take a huge leap of imagination to see how a little mispronunciation may lead to a sequence of “funny” jokes. As a result of this and partly to get […]
Domhnall MacAuley on primary care in Canada
When Davidicus Wong (cool name) told of being asked by a fellow passenger on a plane “Are you a GP or just a just a specialist?”, it set the scene for the Impact BC Canadian Health Improvement Forum, which preceded the Institute for Healthcare Improvement meeting (10th Annual International Summit on Redesigning the Clinical Office […]
Tauseef Mehrali on war and medicine
My practice recently revamped its provision of short-notice medical appointments by transforming the Emergency Surgery into the (so far so good) Rapid Access Surgery. In essence, patients can now no longer pitch up to the practice between 11 am and 12 noon and definitely see a doctor regardless of their complaint, or lack thereof. […]