The Exceptional Potential Of General Practice

This innovative and timely book draws on pioneering precedents, basic principles, current examples and international experience to capture the narratives, examples and ideas that underlie and demonstrate the exceptional potential of general practice: "If health care is not at is best where it is needed most, health inequalities will widen." "The unworried unwell are not hard to reach but they are easy to ignore and are often ignored." "With patient contact, population coverage, continuity, coordination, flexibility, long term relationships and trust, general practices are the natural hubs of local health systems." "... practitioners ... are not only scientists but also responsible citizens and if they did not raise their voice who else should?" Written for family doctors looking to strengthen local collaboration, it brings together the traditional strengths of consultations, caring, continuity, coordination and coverage with the current and future challenges of building capacity, community, creativity, consistency, collegiality and campaigning. It highlights the critical importance of working with patients, maximising the use of serial encounters, integrating care, joint working between practices, social prescribing, community development and advocacy based on patient and practitioner experience. Drawing on the highly-regarded work of Deep End GPs serving the poorest communities in Scotland ̶ www.gla.ac.uk/deepend ̶ the book is an invaluable handbook for all primary care doctors, irrespective of health care system or country, seeking to provide unconditional continuity of personalised care for all patients, whatever problem or combination of problems a patient may have.

This is a history of general practice under the National Health Service, covering the whole of the first 50 years, from 1948 to the present.

The first collective record of the evolution of general medical practice as an academic discipline over half a century. This anthology captures the stories of the early struggles to set up university departments between visionary supporters and traditionalist blockers as well as the steadily increasing successes aided by a dedicated funding system. The accounts are written where possible by the people involved in the early developments of their subject. These tales are of vision, commitment and resilience and are interesting both in their own right and for the more general lessons they tell us about the processes of creating institutional change within a modern democracy.

This accessible text covers the entirety of General Practice and the General Practitioner, from student to retirement and from the beginning of the NHS to the present day. It provides a comprehensive historical overview representing both academic and front-line perspectives, describing what has changed, beneficial or otherwise, as the specialty has evolved. The details within each chapter represent the views of the average working British GP and illustrate how the changes over the decades have impacted patient care and its delivery. The perspective often differs from that which prevails in many academic tomes on the subject. The topics covered, from the primary care team, changes to out-of-hours provision, the impact of IT, training, and regulation, to the future of General Practice, will be essential reading for all doctors considering a career in the specialty and will also be of interest to GP vocational training scheme course organisers and trainers, overseas medical educators and healthcare policy makers, social and medical historians, and the general public.

Deep End practices are at the front line of the NHS in addressing the health and problems of severely deprived communities. The experiences and views of GPs serving the 100 most deprived practice populations in Scotland are presented.

This collection of essays on general practice, written by a variety of eminent contributors working in primary care, considers the influence and leadership of GPs and general practice in the wider community in order to improve the understanding of general practice.

Good Practice: What it means to put the patient first, not politics, posturing, pretentiousness, protocols or process. This is a text book for all doctors but especially GPs, Appraisers and Registrars. It is written by a 40 year plus front line NHS doctor who for most of his career worked twice to three times the current doctors’ Working Time Directive limited week. Chris Heath has been a Paediatric Lecturer in a teaching hospital, an Anaesthetist, various junior specialists and a GP for over 30 years in 3 different practices. He has been a GP Trainer and Appraiser and has seen politics and political correctness harm patients’ interests constantly over the last half of his career. From the way the NHS selects young doctors to the way they are educated and assessed, the best interests of the patient are largely ignored. This is a text book but it also contains home truths, advice, insights and original, honest guidance on being a safe, effective doctor. As well as giving an assessment of what has gone wrong with the NHS over the last 20 years, the author explains why today’s politicians, medical schools, Royal Colleges and many doctors will resist the changes essential to put the patients’ needs first again. 1 Politics, Who we are, The CQC etc 2 Administration, Training, The Consultation and Teaching 3 Basic Biology 4 Acute Medicine in General Practice 5 Alcohol 6 Allergy 7 Analgesics 8 Anticoagulants, Clotting 9 The Breast 10 Cancer and Terminal Care 11 Cardiology 12 Useful Clinical Signs, Eponymous diseases 13 Dermatology 14 Diabetes, Metabolism 15 Diet, Vitamins and Nutrition 16 Driving 17 Odd drugs 18 Ear, Nose and Throat 19 Gastroenterology 20 Geriatrics 21 Haematology 22 Hormones 23 Immunisation and Vaccines 24 Infections, Antibiotics, Microbiota 25 Legal Issues 26 Liver 27 Miscellaneous 28 Musculoskeletal, Orthopaedics, Sports, NSAIDs 29 Neurology 30 Ophthalmology 31 Paediatrics 32 Pathology 33 Pregnancy, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Contraception 34 Psychiatry and Controlled Drugs 35 Respiratory 36 Sex and STDs 37 Sleep 38 Travel 39 Urology 40 Work References