Medical Centre

 1. Covid-19 vaccination : Spring booster campaign currently underway for high-risk groups. Offers of first and second Covid-19 vaccinations for low-risk people who are currently unvaccinated will come to an end after 30 June. 2.  Monkeypox (mpox) vaccination : Anyone who is eligible for mpox vaccine should come forward for vaccination. First doses of vaccine remain available until June for gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men (GBMSM) at highest risk from mpox with second doses available until the end of July. 3. Patient choice : Patients will be able to choose from up to five different providers through the NHS app when they are referred by a GP for specialist treatment. In practice, this may not have much impact because many patients will choose to be referred to the closest hospital; others will know what hospital they want to use; and most of the rest will rely on the judgement of their GP. 4. Pharmacist access to GP records : Community pharmacists will be able to a...

  This week, the government published its recovery plan for NHS general practice in England. Thanks to Pulse for the excellent summary. The key areas in the recovery plan include: 1. Patient triage Provide general practices with digital tools and care navigation training for ‘Modern General Practice Access’ and offer funding to practices that agree to adopt this approach before March 2025. 2. Information Technology Support general practices on analogue lines to move to digital telephony if they sign up by July 2023. Enable patients in over 90% of practices to see their records and practice messages, book appointments and order repeat prescriptions using the NHS App by March 2024. 3. Redirecting patients to pharmacy Launch Pharmacy First so that by end of 2023 community pharmacies can supply prescription-only medicines for seven common conditions. Expand pharmacy oral contraception and blood pressure services this year, subject to consultation. 4. Self-referral ...

 One of the most significant changes I have witnessed during my medical career is the introduction of electronic health records (EHRs). While they have brought many benefits to the NHS, patients and clinicians, they have also posed some challenges. On the positive side, EHRs have made medical records more legible, accessible and secure. Many doctors and patients will remember the era when a patient’s medical record was often “missing” when they attended for an outpatient appointment. This made the management of the patient more difficult as the clinician attending the patient did not have all the information they needed; usually requiring the patient to return at a later date when hopefully by which time their medical records would be found. With EHRs, in contrast, clinicians can access patient records from anywhere at any time, which has made it easier to provide care to patients in different locations. EHRs have also made it easier to conduct medical research, as they allow resea...

 A complaint I often hear from colleagues is that “the NHS has taken the joy out of medicine”. Modern healthcare delivery is increasingly seen by NHS staff and by patients as an industrial-type activity with strict performance targets. This has resulted in many healthcare professionals feeling that they have lost the much of the flexibility and autonomy that was once a defining characteristic of their professions. This feeling can also concern patients, as they may feel that they may not be receiving the personalised care and attention that they feel they need. The focus on targets, metrics and finances can create an environment where patients feel they are being treated as numbers rather than as individuals with unique needs and circumstances. It is important for politicians, NHS managers and clinicians to acknowledge these concerns and work to address them. While performance targets, metrics and financial monitoring are important tools for measuring the effectiveness of healthcar...

 I joined Twitter 10 years ago in May 2013. One of the lessons I've learned from social media is that too many people want “certainty”. But in public health and medicine, there often aren’t certainties; just probabilities of certain outcomes or unknowns due to a lack of evidence. This can be frustrating for people who are looking for clear answers, but science is a process of discovery, and there is always more to learn; either from new research or from summarising and synthesising evidence from current and past research. By looking at the existing evidence, we can make informed decisions about our health and the health of our communities. Uncertainty is a critical aspect of scientific inquiry and helps researchers refine their understanding of health-related issues over time. Uncertainty can arise due to factors such as incomplete data, limitations in research, or the complexity of the systems being studied. Another way to deal with uncertainty is to be open to new information. As...

 I am sometimes asked by junior researchers or by the public how the publication process for academic articles works. The academic peer review timeline varies depending on the journal, but it typically takes several months (sometimes even longer) from submission to publication. 1. Submission: You submit your paper to the journal. Make sure your paper is well-written, checked for spelling and grammatical errors, follows the journal's style and formatting requirements, and that you submit your paper to a journal that is a good fit for your work. 2. Initial screening: An editor at the journal reviews your paper to make sure it is within the scope of the journal & meets the journal's style and formatting requirements. Some articles are rejected at this stage, without external peer review (particularly, by larger journals). 3. Peer review: The editor sends your paper to one or more external experts in your field for review. Reviewers are asked to assess the originality, signific...