Show Notes
Suddenly 1.7m extra people have been told to shield from coronavirus, thanks to the QCovid algorithm, and that's causing confusion - ethnicity is one of the risk factors in QCovid, and yet there is a signal that there is lower update of the vaccine amongst ethnic minorities in the UK.
In this week’s episode, we discuss how particular factors, such as age, ethnicity, and comorbidities, affect your QCovid score, and why a GP can help people interpret that population level risk to themselves.
We also discuss how institutional barriers may be preventing people from accessing the vaccine, and the active role that GPs should play in engaging with their at-risk patients, and how they might best support the communities they serve in promoting vaccine uptake.
Our guests: Kevin Fenton is the Regional Director of Public Health England for London, and Regional Director of Public Health NHS London.
Kamlesh Khunti is a professor of Primary Care Diabetes & Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester. He is also the co-director of the Leicester Diabetes Centre, and co-developer of the QCovid algorithm.
More from Deep Breath In
The BMJ's long running "10 minute consultation" series is being questioned - can you do everything we suggest in 10 minutes? Can GPs really do any meaningful consultations in 10 minutes? That's the question that our three guests have been asking - and they join Tom Nolan, to discuss what they found.
Is cancer screening worth it, and how can GPs have that conversation? This episode of Deep Breath In explores the intricacies of assessing risks and benefits of cancer screening, featuring Michael Bretthauer's insights from a JAMA Internal Medicine study. That meta-analysis combined efficacy of various cancer screening studies - and found most screenings showed minimal gains in extending overall life expectancy, though some slightly reduced cancer-specific mortality. That leaves GPs with the challenge of communicating these nuanced findings to patients. Michael explains how he tries to convey complex concepts to patients, despite the societal inclination toward extensive testing despite low risks.
As news about the climate breakdown hits, it's hard not to feel the stirring of climate anxiety. One way to mitigate that is by taking action, but it's hard to know where to start, and what GPs themselves can do. In this podcast, we hear about 5 ways in which you can start bringing a sustainable outlook to primary care, and engage colleagues and patients in making a difference.
There have been so many conflicting views in the media lately on the management of menopause, and HRT has barely been out of the press at all in the last couple of years. As a result of the myriad uncertainties around menopause, many women are left feeling like they’re having to fend for themselves, and that their concerns are not being heard by their doctors. Taking segments from The BMJ’s webinar in May on known unknowns of menopause, we discuss the controversies around HRT; how we can give women balanced and realistic information about menopause and managing their symptoms; and how we can reframe the messaging around the menopausal transition in a more positive and hopeful way, in order to help empower women in navigating this normal life stage.
There's never enough time in the day to be a GP, but it's still hard to say no to that one patient, or to a colleague who is asking for your help. In this episode of Deep Breath In, we'll hear from Rachel Morris, about why it's so hard to so hard to say no, particularly for doctors. She'll challenge us to think about what the real effects of piling on more work are, and give us some strategies to help us say no in our every day lives.