End of the big freeze?

Pulse Editor Nigel Praities looks at all the data carefully and concludes that while the ‘arctic blast’ may be over, GPs will still be feeling the chill this year.

The March issue also has an investigation into the rise of private screening companies and the pressure this is putting on GP practices, with healthy patients receiving spurious tests such as MRIs and ECGs. A survey has found 43% of GPs have noticed a rise in worried patients coming to them after private screening threw up unexpected results.

There is a timely Big Interview with the chair of the House of Commons Health Committee (and former GP) Dr Sarah Wollaston. She gives her views on the crisis in A&E departments this winter and why the Government needs to honour its commitments to GPs. ‘We need the promises delivered,’ she says.

Peverley returns with a column looking at where the health secretary can find the 5,000 extra GPs he has promised and we have a Your Practice special on ‘unusual patient populations’.

The whole issue has 5 CPD hours of top-notch learning, with the latest on vitamin D deficiency and supplementation and top tips on unexpected vaginal bleeding.