Vol. 4 No. 2 2010

Your Practice

After one of the harshest winters on record I am delighted to be introducing the spring edition of Your Practice.

Julie Wilson, Clinical Risk Programme Manager, leads a team who undertake clinical risk self-assessments of general practice. They have the privilege of visiting a great number of varied general practices across the UK and Ireland, placing them in an ideal position to identify emerging risks. In Julie’s article “Changing times, changing dangers”, she explores some of the new risks facing general practice today and outlines how to tackle them.

Dr David Coombs, a practising GP, also tackles new dangers. He focuses on the risks associated with minor surgery and highlights two cases where practices have experienced problems in this field.

April saw the end of the Med 3 and the Med 5 and the introduction of the “Statement of Fitness for Work”. The change in the regulations means that rather than a patient being declared either fit or unfit for work, the functional effect of the patient’s condition should be taken into consideration.

I know some GPs are concerned about these changes and it will be interesting to see the impact on the national sickness absence statistics.

I hope you enjoy this edition of Your Practice and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any feedback.

Dr Richard Stacey
Editor-in-chief