Pulse in Focus Podcast: The rise of unsolicited A&G; and when should GPs offer PSA tests?

The latest episode of Pulse in Focus: The Podcast for GPs discusses the findings of Pulse’s recent survey, revealing the rise of unsolicited advice and guidance (A&G) to general practice.

Senior journalist Maya Dhillon is joined by reporter Harry Hetherington to discuss the findings of Pulse’s survey which exclusively revealed that an estimated quarter of patient referrals are now returned as unsolicited A&G to general practice.

This comes despite NHS England denying the existence of a 25% target for GP referrals to be ‘diverted’ back to GPs as A&G.

Harry explains how this has impacted patient safety and the extra workload it is creating for GPs. The pair also consider how this could affect the rollout of the consultant-led ‘single point of access’ triage – due to begin from 1 October.

Following a flurry of news stories in the past few months about PSA testing and prostate cancer, this episode’s clinical segment sees GP and Pulse editorial adviser Dr Keith Hopcroft look at the Government’s updated guidance on when GPs should offer PSA testing.

Dr Hopcroft speaks with Dr Samuel Merriel – GP and clinical senior lecturer who has sat on expert advisory groups relating to prostate cancer for NICE and NHS England – to clarify the National Screening Committee’s (NSC) recommendations; whether GPs should be proactively looking to offer PSAs to patients; and more.

Dr Merriel also shares some insight from the TRANSFORM trial, on which he is a co-investigator, which is researching the best ways to detect prostate cancer earlier.

Pulse in Focus: The Podcast for GPs is hosted on Buzzsprout but you can find it wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to the full episcode here.

Last month’s podcast discussed what Andy Burnham’s new Government means for general practice and neighbourhood care.