GP articles from May 2007, page 4

GP archives from May 2007

High-life in a windmill.(Julian Godlee buys windmill )(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... A Hertfordshire GP has expanded his holiday and buy-to-let property portfolio by buying a windmill for pounds 1.5 million. Dr Julian Godlee, a full-time partner in St Albans (pictured with wife Carolyn), runs the 18th century Cley...

GP health campus vision for London.
May 4, 2007... A report by a surgeon could lead to major upheaval for GPs. Julie Griffiths and Prisca Middlemiss report. For a surgeon, Professor Ara Darzi wields considerable influence over how general practice could look in the future. In his...

GP stress grows as boom years fade.(Survey)
May 4, 2007... Workload and NHS upheaval have left health and social care workers suffering from stress, Nick Bostock reports. Overwork is the top cause of stress among health and social care staff, a survey shows. A total of 59 per cent of...

Behind the Headlines: Could formula milk halt obesity?
May 4, 2007... Modified baby formula milk may reduce obesity in later life. Sanjay Tanday investigates. What is the story? Adding leptin, a hormone shown to control hunger, to formula milk could prevent children from growing up obese, according to...

Letter: GPs must report each other for public safety.
May 4, 2007... Dear Editor Dr Chris Lancelot writes that 'until relatively recently GMC regulations stated that if you criticised a colleague publicly you could yourself be charged with bringing the profession into disrepute' (GP, 20 April). This...

Letter: GPC must realise NHS Employers is a fixture.
May 4, 2007... Dear Editor The GPC needs to recognise the significance of the role of PCTs, and of NHS Employers as their representative body, in negotiations about the GMS contract ('GPC negotiators threaten to boycott NHS Employers', GP, 20 April)....

Letter: GPs should not have to know about amygdala.
May 4, 2007... Dear Editor Was I the only one depressed by Dr Mary Selby's statement that you should not be able to be a GP in the future unless you know 'what the amygdala is, and what it does' (GP, 13 April)? She asks us to rejoice in the new...

Letter: Ethnicity details can help with diagnosis.
May 4, 2007... Dear Editor The article on ethnicity and culture in medicine made some important omissions (GP, 13 April). In ethnicity, the list showed paucity in ethnic origins in the Middle East and eastern Europe - including various varieties of...

Letter: I wish new contract had been around in my day.
May 4, 2007... Dear Editor I was somewhat bemused and bewildered by Dr Hari Nawal's well-expressed gripes about the recent developments in the running of general practice under the new GMS contract - mainly about the adverse effects on the GP's own...

Letter: 'Patient's view' writer is not representative.
May 4, 2007... Dear Editor Reading the Dilemma about a GP who found herself working until 8pm every night, I was saddened by the lack of sympathy from the 'patient's view' representative, and not for the first time (GP, 20 April). Thank goodness...

Letter: Interpreters are waste of scarce GP funding.
May 4, 2007... Dear Editor I am pleased that common sense has prevailed at last and the DoH has devolved responsibility for interpreter costs to local level. At present the patient has no responsibility at all for speaking English. As a locum,...

Opinion: The lean and mean GP machine.
May 4, 2007... Well, it's all over for another year. The helter-skelter chase for points is complete, we've hung the tag on its toe and gratefully closed the door. We aren't even waiting to see the corpse incinerated because next year we know there will be...

Opinion: When having patients is a failure.
May 4, 2007... Confucius cursed his enemies that they might live in interesting times. In Suffolk things are so interesting that we begin to wonder if we did something terrible in a previous life. Cuts. Massive, hideous, cuts - for the three practices...

Editorial: The legacy of stress and misspending.(Editorial)
May 4, 2007... An interesting picture of the NHS has emerged this week - or rather two opposing pictures. On the one side we have prime minister Tony Blair's echoes of Harold MacMillan with his 'never had it so good in the NHS' speech delivered as part...

Opinion: Chris Lancelot on ... Prescribing for differences.
May 4, 2007... In these days of racial and sexual equality it has become almost anathema to talk about differences - yet the more we understand human beings, the more diverse we appear to be. We know different racial groups have different susceptibilities...

Clinical: Journals watch - Pneumonia, warts and obesity.
May 4, 2007... Too busy to read the journals? Let Dr Simon Hunter guide you through the latest research SINGLE OR DOUBLE DOSE AMOXICILLIN IN PNEUMONIA Arch Dis Child 2007; 92: 291-7 Conducted in Pakistan, this study determined whether...

Clinical: Web-based training for all primary care teams.
May 4, 2007... As primary care is encouraged to take on services from secondary care, and practices seek to utilise staff to provide these and hit quality targets, cost-effective training is essential. GP's website Healthcare Republic has teamed up with...

Clinical: Websites relating to cystic fibrosis.(Website overview)
May 4, 2007... Dr Keith Barnard recommends various websites about cystic fibrosis DETAILED INFORMATION I confess these pages look somewhat overwhelming, but I looked for a concise online account of cystic fibrosis aimed at GPs and failed miserably....

Clinical: Expert opinion - Surgery for pulmonary metastatic disease.
May 4, 2007... Surgery is the best option for solid tumours that spread to the lung, say Dr Suneeta Kochhar and Mrs Karen Harrison-Phipps Secondary lung tumours are neoplastic lesions originating at a site distinct from the primary lesion. Metastatic...

Clinical: Overuse sport injuries to the wrist.
May 4, 2007... Wrist overuse injuries are common in many sports, says Dr Arvind Mohan Overuse injuries of the wrist are commonly reported in athletes. About half of all athletes sustain injuries of the wrist, of which 25-50 per cent are from...

Clinical: Cystic fibrosis.(Disease/Disorder overview)
May 4, 2007... 1. EPIDEMIOLOGY AND AETIOLOGY Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common life-shortening recessively inherited disorder of Caucasian people, affecting one in 2,500 newborn infants. The parents are healthy carriers of one CF gene, as is one...

Clinical: Managing COPD exacerbations.(Chronic obstructive lung disease)
May 4, 2007... Dr Kevin Gruffydd-Jones examines the management options for exacerbations of COPD. Exacerbations of COPD impose a high toll on the patient and on the NHS. An exacerbation of COPD is a sustained worsening of the patient's symptoms...

Registrar: Consultation skills - When a GP feels manipulated.
May 4, 2007... Deal with your response to demanding patients before managing the consultation, says Dr Peter Havelock. Doctors can be manipulated by patients - this may be subtle or it may be clearly obvious. With both these situations the doctor can...

Registrar: MRCGP Exam update - Combination inhalers.
May 4, 2007... Current situation - Asthma is poorly treated despite an increased awareness of the condition. - The dose-response curve for the effect of inhaled cortico-steroids on lung function becomes flat at moderate doses, indicating that...

Registrar: Pictorial - Case study.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... THE CASE A 58-year-old gardener presents in the surgery with a respiratory infection. While he is consulting, he mentions that he has noticed a hard lump on the palm of his right hand that has been present for several months. It is...

Registrar: Consultation in primary care.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 4, 2007... BOOK The Patient-Doctor Consultation in Primary Care: theory and practice Jill Thistlethwaite, Penny Morris; ISBN: 9780850843071; Price: pounds 24.95 'The consultation is at the heart of general practice. It is the central...

Registrar: Jargon buster - Urgent care centres.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... What are they? These are non-appointment centres designed to cater for emergencies outside A&E, either in a 'pre-emergency' department or a community setting. How do they differ from walk-in centres? The term 'urgent care...

Registrar: A registrar survival guide ... the practice meeting.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... - Muster enthusiasm When invited to your first practice meeting try to look enthusiastic. There is usually plenty of time to think up an excuse if you really can't face actually turning up. Don't forget those GP registrar-specific...

MedEconomics: Motoring - How to ... practise eco-friendly motoring.
May 4, 2007... The environment is climbing high on the GP car buyer's agenda for practice motoring. Barely a day passes without some mention of motoring and the environment in the headlines, so it is no wonder that an increasing number of GPs are...

MedEconomics: Patients and the four self care principles.
May 4, 2007... Encourage patients to boost their well-being. A patient comes to see you about his back ache again. He has seen several doctors for back pain over the years. Usually he has up to four weeks' off work as his job involves heavy...

MedEconomics: GPs must watch their language.(general practitioners)(Column)
May 4, 2007... George Winter identifies a syndrome that is undermining communication with patients. The government's Language Monitoring Unit (LMU) has reported recent outbreaks of linguistic social climbing from around the country, but officials...

MedEconomics: A mini printer to end surgery label woes.(Brother QL-550 from Brother International Corp.)(Product/service evaluation)
May 4, 2007... A reversible label printer can save time in the surgery, says Dr Paul Bromley. In the past I have dabbled with the idea of using small-profile label printers in the consulting room. I was discouraged because I found them expensive to...

MedEconomics: GP MedEconomics - Proving a locum's freelance tax status.
May 4, 2007... Sessional GPs and practices must have clear arrangements to avoid tax pitfalls. In 2005 the Inland Revenue began an investigation into whether my wife, a freelance GP locum, was not self-employed but an employee of a practice she...

MedEconomics: Premises refurbishment and pensions.
May 4, 2007... IMPROVEMENT GRANT I became a GP partner last year. The surgery, for which notional rent reimbursement is payable, is GP-owned and a listed building. I do not hold a property share and last autumn the retired partner sold their share to...

MedEconomics: Put GP enterprises on a strong footing.(private business)(general practitioners)
May 4, 2007... Identify your core business skills to ward off private competition, says Dr Rod MacRorie. Faced with the prospect of alternative providers and other competitors for primary care services, GPs are understandably nervous. It is tempting to...

MedEconomics: Understanding the recent VAT rule changes.(value added tax)(Interview)
May 4, 2007... Fiona Barr answers some common queries on the new VAT rules for GPs On the 1 May the rules on the VAT for professional fees changed. This guide tells you what action practices should take. Why the change? The UK has amended its...

GP Life: Executive, 4x4 and MPV.(Mercedes Benz R320 CDI L)(Product/service evaluation)
May 4, 2007... The Mercedes R320 CDI L aims to create a unique appeal by mixing it up a little. Mercedes launched the R-Class last summer, underpinning its luxurious six-seat appeal with a four-wheel-drive system. Testing the long-wheelbase R320CDI L,...

Plain Tales from the Surgery.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... SEDUCED INTO LABOUR I saw an Australian couple in surgery who had recently become first-time parents. The husband and recent father was very attentive to his new family. When I asked how everything went with the delivery he...

Independent Nurse: Unions demand that trusts let nurses use prescribing skills.(Unison conference )(Conference news)(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... Unions have warned that the freedom of independent nurse prescribing is under threat from PCTs and trusts drawing up their own rules for nurse prescribers. At the Unison conference in Brighton last week, a mental health nurse in West...

Independent Nurse: Pay award sparks call to consider strike action.(Royal College of Nursing and UNISON protest)(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... For the first time in almost 20 years nurses could strike if the government does not back down on staging this year's pay award and increase the award to above the rate of inflation. Nurses at this year's RCN Congress voted overwhelmingly...

Independent Nurse: Child jab causes new strains.(bacterial strain due to pneumococcal vaccines)(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... The pneumococcal vaccine, recently introduced into the child immunisation programme, can lead to outbreaks of new strains of the bacteria, data from the US suggests. Routine vaccination with heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine...

Independent Nurse: MEND programme shows real benefit.('Mind, Education, Nutrition, Do It)(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... A UK programme to help obese children lose weight has been shown to maintain results over a year. Data from the nine-week 'Mind, Education, Nutrition, Do It' (MEND) project was presented to delegates at the European Congress of Obesity,...

Independent Nurse: Depression is marker for type-2 diabetes.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... Chronic depression or depression that worsens over time may promote type-2 diabetes US research suggests. A 10-year study of 4,681 men and women aged 65 years or over who were free from diabetes at baseline, evaluated for 10 symptoms of...

Independent Nurse: CVD.(cardiovascular diseases)(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... US researchers have carried out the first long-term study of the impact of salt on health. It showed that eating less salt could lower the risk of death from CVD by up to a quarter. The study involved 2,415 patients with high or normal BP....

Independent Nurse: NICE.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... New guidance for employers has advised that employees should be allowed to attend stop smoking clinics during work hours without loss of pay. Andrew Dillon, chief executive of NICE, said smokefree workplaces meant increased productivity and...

Independent Nurse: Asthma.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... A new website has been set up to help patients and health professionals with the changeover to CFC-free inhalers. The UK has signed an international agreement to ban CFC production and manufacture of old-style inhalers will cease. The website...

Independent Nurse: OTC Medicine.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... The MHRA is consulting on changing many cold and flu treatments to prescription only medicines. The change would affect all those containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine which can be used to create highly addictive crystal meth. Medicines...

Independent Nurse: Dementia.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... Science minister Malcolm Wicks, giving evidence to a Commons committee on space science, has suggested that satellite technology, commonly used for navigation, might also be put to 'socially more important' uses such as keeping track of...

Independent Nurse: Unison Conference - Conference warns on risks of setting up social enterprises.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... Unison is embarking on a concerted campaign against social enterprises, charities or community foundation trusts taking on any NHS services. At its health conference last week in Brighton the union overwhelmingly voted to resist the...

Independent Nurse: Vital Statistics - Blood pressure.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... 23.8% of people in the UK have undiagnosed high blood pressure 29.5% of people in the South West are undiagnosed with the condition 17.8% of people in the North East are undiagnosed with the condition The Stroke Association...

Independent Nurse: Journals Watch.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... HIV INCREASES HEART ATTACK RISK US researchers compared data on 4,000 HIV-infected patients aged 18 to 84 with more than one million free of the virus. Overall, the risk of heart attack was almost doubled in those with HIV and was almost...

Independent Nurse: Old weight charts fuel child obesity crisis.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... Out-of-date weight charts mean health visitors could be unwittingly promoting obesity in infants by pressuring mothers to overfeed their babies according to new research. The most popular charts used were produced by the US National...

Independent Nurse: Lack of information on support services.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... A survey has shown that patients with conditions such as MS and diabetes or carers of elderly or disabled family members are coming up against 'sheer brick walls' in their attempts to find information on support services. The Picker...

Independent Nurse: RCN Congress - Nurses call for action on PCT deficits.(Royal College of Nursing, primary care treatment)
May 4, 2007... Nurses have called on the RCN to investigate how funding for community matrons is being spent by PCTs. Rebecca Neno, programme leader at Thames Valley University, told the RCN congress in Harrogate this month that only four out of 28...

Independent Nurse: RCN Congress in Brief.(nurse practice)(electronic patient records)(United Kingdom's National Health Service)
May 4, 2007... PAPERWORK Nurses are being kept away from patient care to complete paperwork because administration posts have been frozen. Lisa Lester, a community mental health nurse from Gloucestershire, said it was not cost-effective or efficient...

Independent Nurse: News Focus - Pay Awards - Threat of industrial action looming.(low nurse salaries spark protests from the Royal College of Nursing)
May 4, 2007... Below-inflation pay rises herald nurse strike action for the first time in 20 years, find Julie Griffiths and Judy Sands. The mood of RCN Congress over this year's pay rise can be summed up in a quote from David Harding Price, a nurse in...

Independent Nurse: News Focus - Pay Awards - Will the GP pay freeze affect nurses?
May 4, 2007... GPs have reacted angrily to their nil pay award this year. Joe Lepper looks at how practice nurses might be affected. The government's decision in March to freeze GP pay for the second year running sent shock waves through practices. ...

Independent Nurse: Editorial - Gordon Brown may rue his decision on pay.(UNISON (London, England) conference)(Editorial)
May 4, 2007... The scene has been set for a summer of discontent across the NHS - and a summer of some discomfort for prime minister-in-waiting, Gordon Brown. Delegates at Unison's annual conference in Brighton last week, and at the RCN congress in...

Independent Nurse: Opinion - Nurses are doing a great job in tough times.(Column)
May 4, 2007... RCN congress has again put the NHS in the spotlight. It was more professional this year than last year, in my view, but still the messages are the same. Nurses are bearing the brunt of the NHS financial crisis and are still expected to accept...

Independent Nurse: Opinion - Telling the truth about NHS walk-in centres.
May 4, 2007... Research suggests NHS walk-in centres are failing but anecdotal evidence disagrees, says Paul Cornforth. There was a collective sharp intake of breath at work last week, as I read out an article about walk-in centres, published in a...

Independent Nurse: The Big Question - Will supervised community treatment improve care?(Mental Health Bill)
May 4, 2007... The Mental Health Bill, which had its second reading in the House of Commons this month, proposes introducing compulsory supervised community treatment. The government argues that this will improve care, but campaigners are not convinced. ...

Independent Nurse: Clinical - Superbugs in the community.(infection control)
May 4, 2007... INFECTION CONTROL Targeted hygiene is the way to prevent the spread of superbugs, says Professor Sally Bloomfield. First used by the media as a term for bacteria resistant to antibiotics, the term 'superbug' is increasingly used to...

Independent Nurse: Clinical - Diabetes - Achieving glycaemic targets.
May 4, 2007... Glitazones can help clinicians to improve outcomes in patients with type-2 diabetes. Dr Sarah Jarvis explains. The new GMS contract rewards practices for treating patients to a target HbA1c of <7.5. The landmark UKPDS study, however,...

Independent Nurse: Clinical - Case study - Pictorial Case Study.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... AN ERYTHEMATOUS PLAQUE. THE CASE - A 70-year-old woman presented with a solitary erythematous plaque on her lower left leg that had been slowly enlarging. - Examination revealed that the lesion was red and scaly, with an...

Independent Nurse: Clinical Focus - Contraception: first requests.
May 4, 2007... OVERALL KEY POINTS. - Young women may use 'the Pill' as a generic term for contraception. - The health risks to well women on the combined Pill are very small. - Progestogen-only Pills do not increase the risk of cardiovascular...

Independent Nurse: Clinical - Child health - Managing croup in children.
May 4, 2007... Humidity and oral corticosteroids can be of assistance in croup, writes Dr Taqi Hashmi. Croup is an acute clinical syndrome caused mainly by viral infection and occasionally by Mycoplasma pneumoniae. The majority of cases are caused by...

Independent Nurse: Clinical - Prescribing for atrial fibrillation CVD.(cardiovascular diseases)
May 4, 2007... AF is an arrhythmia that is commonly treated in primary care. Dr David Morris advises on the best approach to take. Arrhythmias due to AF are common in primary care. Approximately 1 per cent of the UK population is affected, rising to...

Independent Nurse: Clinical - Respiratory - Spotting the signs of bronchiectasis.
May 4, 2007... Making a diagnosis of bronchiectasis may not be easy in the early stages, says Dr Harry Brown. Bronchiectasis is a term that can generate confusion, so it is important to define what it means. By breaking the word up into its component...

Independent Nurse: Clinical - Pictorial Case Study - An erythematous rash.(acute urticaria)(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... THE CASE - An eight-year-old boy with a history of asthma presented with an erythematous rash. - The rash had begun over his face but during the night had moved to cover his trunk, arms and legs. - Although the rash appeared...

Independent Nurse: Clinical - Palliative care - Providing palliative care for nausea.
May 4, 2007... A systematic approach is the key to treating nausea and vomiting, whether cancer or non-cancer related, says Dr Simon Auty. Nausea and vomiting occurs in many non-malignant palliative care patients and can be debilitating and distressing....

Independent Nurse: Clinical - Pictures in practice - Conditions affecting male genitalia.
May 4, 2007... CANDIDA INTERTRIGO This patient developed an erythematous, pustular rash in the flexures, which broke down and left red, raw macerated skin with a whitish appearance. The presence of candida may be confirmed if a swab is taken for...

Independent Nurse: Professional - Supporting community nurses.(health care assistants)
May 4, 2007... A pilot scheme to develop a band of assistant practitioners is benefiting patients with long-term conditions writes Sarah Wild. 'Upskilling' is an NHS buzzword, and all healthcare professionals are encouraged to develop their knowledge...

Independent Nurse: Professional - Consulting skills - Improving communication with non-English speaking patients.
May 4, 2007... Non-English speakers can be a challenge for healthcare professionals. Laura Beresford offers some advice. The growth of the European Union and the continued arrival of refugees and asylum seekers brings to the UK increasing numbers of...

Independent Nurse: Professional - Obstetrics - Developing a multidisciplinary drop-in antenatal service.
May 4, 2007... A drop-in service in Bradford is addressing poor attendance at antenatal clinics, writes Heather Stringer. When a local community midwife raised concerns about the number of clients failing to access antenatal services in Bradford North...

Independent Nurse: Professional Resources - Worth a Look.(Pfizer Inc. introduced distance educayion for nurses)(Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths)(Healthcare IT and British Telecommunications PLC jointly introducing awards for primary care information and communication technologies )
May 4, 2007... NURSE EDUCATION IN ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION The NEED programme is a distance-learning course providing a comprehensive overview of the aetiology, epidemiology, treatment and management of erectile dysfunction. Comprising four concise modules,...

Independent Nurse: Professional Resources - Recommended patient resource.(Women Without Sex)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 4, 2007... WHAT IS IT? A revised edition of the guidebook Women Without Sex: the truth about female sexual problems (by health journalist Catherine Kalamis) which was published in April. WHO IS IT AIMED AT? Anyone concerned about female sexual...

Independent Nurse: Professional Resources - Policy Digest.(document issued by Department of Health )(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... You're Welcome quality criteria: making health services young people friendly. WHAT IS THIS DOCUMENT? Best practice guidance published by the DoH in March. This second edition of the You're Welcome quality criteria lays out principles...

Independent Nurse: Professional Resources - In numbers - Underage drinking.(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... Drinking and drug use by children and young people. The results of a government-commissioned national survey of secondary school pupils aged 11 to 15 was published in March. Entitled Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in...

Independent Nurse: Professional Workplace - Career Profile - Abi Smith, Rochester, Kent.(Interview)
May 4, 2007... Why did you become a nurse? I wanted a career that involved helping people and one that my family and I could be proud of. Nursing appealed because it offered good prospects for personal development and would always be in demand. When I...

Independent Nurse: Professional Workplace - Q&A - Can I negotiate flexible working arrangements?(United Kingdom Employment Act 2002)(Brief article)
May 4, 2007... Q: I am a practice nurse with young children and would like the opportunity to work flexibly. Am I entitled to do this and how might I negotiate with my employers? A: It can be harder and more expensive for small businesses like GP...