Imperial College London Primary Care

Medical student Nell Freeman from Imperial College London describes how the third year of the medical course can be tough for students and how the GP who was her Clinical Methods Teacher was a role model to her and taught her much more than just clinical history and examination techniques. "I hadn’t anticipated the emotional challenge of medicine. I found – narcissistically – that patients I could closely identify with, I carried home with me. I didn't quite know what to do with these emotions.  I watched my GP teachers, some of whom had relationships with their patients for more than 20 years, being able to professionally help them navigate their health challenges while still maintaining a very personal, human connection with them, but then being able to close the door and open it again to a new patient. Our teacher let us debrief about our experiences and discuss these challenges. I think the challenge of the third year at Imperial College is learning to accept how ...

Senior GP Teaching Fellow Dr Graham Easton from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health  at Imperial College London recently visited Ghana on behalf of the BBC World Service to host a debate on whether failed health systems in Africa make global epidemics - such as the recent Ebola outbreak - inevitable. The debate explores why the Ebola outbreak was able to spread so extensively, and look at wider lessons to be learnt about containing local epidemics in today’s globalised world. Summary of debate BBC iPlayer Recording - available for a limited period

Coaching for Health Project Launch Event The Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College has received funding from HENWL for an educational project which involves Year 3 medical and nursing undergraduate students jointly overseeing a caseload of patients with chronic conditions at high risk of hospital admission in the community. Students will be given health coaching skills which is new to the undergraduate curriculum. On the 12 th and 13 th of September 2014 the project was launched. Year 3 medical undergraduates on the MB BS course at Imperial College and Bucks nursing students were trained in health coaching skills. Evaluation of the project will be looking at the value of undergraduate interprofessional learning and whether health coaching can promote patient enablement. We had a very sunny day and students could practice their coaching skills in the sun.   We did some small group work where students could meet their GPs and ...

Andre Kubler PhD, a Final Year Medical Student at Imperial College London, describes how his academic placement in general practice changed his views about primary care "GP-negativity’ is a common condition, characterized by a lack of respect for general practice and its practitioners. It results largely from the media’s portrayal of GPs as ‘money-grabbing, cancer-missing, part-time doctors’. Medical students are at particular risk of developing this condition because they spend the majority of their time with authoritative hospital physicians that criticize their generalist colleagues. I was ‘GP-negative’ but my 3-week rotation in general practice cured me. I was healed through professional treatment: I was welcomed to the practice and introduced to each member. I was given access to online notes, and invited to meetings. I was told to prepare for my clinics, asked my opinions and welcomed to over-booked clinics. I was treated as a member of the practice; and for the fi...

On 1st September 2014, Professor Ala Alwan, the WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean visited the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London. Before taking up his current post in February 2012, Professor Alwan was WHO Assistant Director-General for Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health. We discussed a range of topics, including health system development, training of health professionals, and supporting the prevention, early diagnosis and management of conditions such as diabetes. The Department of Primary Care and Public Health and our WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education and Training will be supporting a conference on primary care in the Eastern Mediterranean Region to be held in Cairo, Egypt in November to take forwards this proposed work. 

A cross-sectional survey published in BMJ Open found poor infant feeding practices in a rural county, Zhao County, in Hebei Province, China. Early initiation of breastfeeding was only 22.4%, exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months was less than 10% and continued breastfeeding up to the age of two was just 38.2%. Only 32.5% of children were given iron-rich or iron-fortified foods. The leading sources of infant feeding information were family members, neighbours, friends and popular media. Only around 20% of the information came from health facilities and nearly none came from communities. Household property data showed that 99.9% of households owned televisions and 99.4% owned mobile phones. In addition, 61.2% of the households owned computers, with 54.8% having access to the internet. The authors concluded that few caregivers of children in Zhao County received feeding information during pregnancy and after delivery. Moreover, their feeding knowledge and practices were poor. Mul...

On Friday 13 June 2014, Imperial College London held its Annual GP Teachers Conference, organised by the Department of Primary Care & Public Health. We had some distinguished speakers including Dr Roger Neighbour and Dr Martin Lupton. There were also a range of workshops. The event was attended by over 100 GPs from across the UK. The winners of our 2014 Teaching Prizes were also announced at the event. Dr Anju Verma and Dr Caroline Collins, GP Teaching Fellows, at the start of the day  Dr Jo Harris and Dr Sonia Kumar discussing their plans for the day The delegates waiting for the start of the conferenc Dr Graham Easton discussing the highlights of the morning session over lunch A poster on our new case management project Some of the pictures taken by our students in their Year 6 placements  A health education poster designed by our students Dr Martin Lupton speaking about the medical school's plans for undergraduate education ...