Imperial College London Primary Care

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 ...

The Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London hosted visit today from a senior delegation from the Ministry of Health in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The aim of the visit was to brief the delegation about primary health care in the UK, including the education of medical students and the training of primary care physicians (general practitioners). We had a stimulating discussion about whether some aspects of primary care in the UK could be used in Kazakhstan. Among the speakers from the department wee Professor Azeem Majeed, Dr Sonia Kumar, Dr Sami Hasan, Dr Graham Easton and Professor Salman Rawaf. The delegation from Kazakhstan was accompanied by Professor Rory Shaw, the Medical Director of UK Trade and Investment.

Congratulations to all the winners of our 2014 Undergraduate Medical Student and GP Teacher prizes. STUDENT PRIZES Year 1 Essay Prize: David Kockerling Year 5 North West Thames Provost Prize Patient Project Prize: Joseph Barker Year 6 Adam Snape Audit Prize: Harriet Davidson and Frances Dixon Year 6 Grant Blair Portfolio Prize: T hulasi Naveenam and Sarah Morton GP TEACHER PRIZES Year 1: Dr Tanya Carthy Year 3: Dr Paul Reynolds Year 5: Dr Elizabeth Pearson and Dr Beena Gohil Year 6: Dr Reshma Rasheed and Dr David Lukey Best New Teacher: Dr Siobhan Steel COMMENTS ON STUDENTS Year 5 North West Thames Provost Prize "An incredibly thorough researched review of a patientwith complex medical problems by Joseph Barker. He identified practical, achievable areas of improvement to patient care that could be actioned, as well as a mature patient centred approach in his application of guidelines and consideration of both the patient and carer's needs. Upo...

The Undergraduate GP Teaching Unit in the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London has been discussing the issue of patient consent in consultations where medical students are present. This has come about as a recommendation from the CQC to have written consent for an observer to be present in the consultation. All Imperial College GP teachers are sent our approved consent documents at the start of a GP student placement. This includes a poster for the waiting room, a patient information leaflet and a patient consent form. We have liaised with other medical schools in thinking about how to approach the issue of consent. The majority view is that written consent on every patient would be unnecessary and cumbersome in terms of paperwork. We do though have consent forms if you wish to use these for now and if the CQC does insist that they become a mandatory requirement when medical students are present during a consultation. The minimum requirements t...

The Dr Foster Unit (DFU) in the Department of Primary Care & Public Health has received funding for two exciting new projects. The first is a one-year NIHR funded project for £100,000 which will quantify the risk of non-obstetric surgery during pregnancy, allowing mothers, surgeons and anaesthetists to make better informed decisions and provide answers to questions regarding the risks involved. The second grant is also from the NIHR. This two-year grant of nearly £650,000 aims to improve the understanding of the Unit’s national hospital mortality surveillance system. It involves evaluating the impact of the alerts in reducing avoidable mortality within English NHS hospitals. Dr Rajvinder has joined the Centre for Patient Safety stream of the Unit. Her work involves developing and piloting patient safety indicators in primary care.