Pulse: The agony of A&G

The Pulse November issue focusses on the NHS’s latest plans to cut secondary care waiting lists – advice and guidance.

Under the scheme, GPs take on the clinical responsibility for patients they may previously have referred. We ask what an expansion of this scheme will mean for their ability to refer, and the potential cost for patient care.

Elsewhere in the Pulse November issue, we ask whether the BMA did get a good deal for practices in terms of funding uplifts for staff pay rises, and whether additional staff – such as pharmacists, physician associates and physiotherapists – are preventing locums from finding work.

In our clinical section, we answer key questions on GOR and GORD in infants, as well as an update on NICE’s new guidance on colorectal cancer referral. The latest in our overdiagnosis series looks at hypothyroidism.

Copperfield turns his attention to the miracle of a patient getting a secondary care appointment, and Nabi laments the splintering of healthcare, where traditional GP work is now being split between GPs and other healthcare professionals.

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