The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
-
Palliative care improves quality of life for people with life-threatening illnesses. There are longstanding inequalities in access to palliative care, with many people never identified as having palliative care needs, particularly frail older people, those with non-malignant disease, and people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Little is known about the process of identification of palliative care needs from a patient perspective. ⋯ A compassionate approach, sharing of prognostic uncertainty, and proactive primary care are key to timely, beneficial identification of palliative care needs. Future policy should ensure that identification is an adaptable, personalised process to meet the individual needs of people with advanced serious illnesses.
-
Mode of access to primary care changed during the COVID-19 pandemic; remote consultations became more widespread. With remote consultations likely to continue in UK primary care, it is important to understand people's perceptions of remote consultations and identify potential resulting inequalities. ⋯ These findings can inform the use and adaptation of remote consultations in primary care. Adults with lower educational levels may need additional support to improve their experience and ensure equitable care via remote consultations.
-
There are various Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms used to index general practice research, without consistency. ⋯ Important variations in the indexation of general practice research were found. Researchers should consider combining 'Primary Health Care' and 'General Practice' in their PubMed searches to access all the general practice research, regardless of their country of origin.
-
The new Scottish GP contract commenced in April 2018 with a stated aim of mitigating health inequalities. ⋯ Four years after the start of the new GP contract in Scotland, patients' experiences of GP consultations suggest that the inverse care law persists.
-
Despite longstanding problems of access to general practice, attempts to understand and address the issues do not adequately include perspectives of the people providing or using care, nor do they use established theories of access to understand complexity. ⋯ Understanding the paradox of access problems allows for different targets for change and different solutions to free up capacity in general practice to address the unmet need in the population.