Advice centre

Learning From Events

With more than 300 million patients consulting with primary care teams annually it’s unfortunately inevitable that a proportion will suffer some form of unintentional harm, mostly of low to moderate severity. Research has suggested that around 1-2% of consultations in primary care are associated with an adverse event. The cost of harm – to patients, to those working in healthcare, and to productivity – is significant.

Whether it’s a revised piece of GMC guidance, or a Bill going through the Scottish Parliament, we use our expertise to inform debates about changes that could affect your practice.

Unemployment reduces wellbeing. Recession raises the demands on healthcare systems and makes it harder to pay for them. Doctors worldwide are having to adapt and change to cope with these additional pressures, says Sarah Whitehouse

Consent is a fundamental principle of medical law. The basic rule is simple: no-one has the right to touch anyone else without lawful excuse and if doctors do so it may well undermine patients’ trust.

I wake up bolt upright at 5.30am. I look in the mirror and realise I’ve inadvertently left my false eyelashes on from the previous day’s telly. They hang rather precariously from my upper lids – my mascara is half way down my cheeks and my hair is doing a good impersonation of Jedward. My husband rolls over and states that I look like a drag queen and promptly falls back to sleep.

Today’s doctors are working in a constantly evolving environment, where many of the old expectations regarding the role of doctors, nurses and patients are being replaced by new ones. The roles themselves are changing – doctors are clinicians, leaders, teachers, managers, commissioners and purchasers of services.