The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
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Although addressing inequality has been a public and political priority for decades, inequalities in health, wealth, and other societal domains persist in England. In Ireland, rates of suicide are twice as high in the most deprived decile of society compared with the least deprived. Trends in the association between deprivation and suicide in England are unclear. ⋯ Suicide is associated with deprivation in England. Despite significant research and policy effort, there has been no improvement in this association between 2004 and 2019.
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Recent immigration from Eastern Europe poses new challenges in engaging with women eligible to have smears. The Roma population have low socioeconomic status, low educational status, and a life expectancy 10 years lower than other EU citizens. An audit of smear uptake in four 'Deep End' Sheffield practices identified as having >1000 registered Roma Slovak patients, demonstrated smear uptakes between 53% to 40%, all of which are below the Sheffield CCG average of 73.5%. ⋯ It is vital that we develop and evaluate appropriate interventions to increase smear uptake in migrant and other vulnerable populations. There is a need for the UK to adapt screening programmes to maximise uptake within 'hard to reach' groups, such as the 'Roma', who are likely to be at the highest risk of cancer and late presentation of the disease.
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Rising demand makes it increasingly difficult for patients to access appointments. Laurie Pike Health Centre (LPHC) operates a predominantly same-day booking policy in order to manage appointment requests from its 18 000 patients. We sought to quantify the number of requests, in order to estimate the unmet demand. ⋯ GP/ANP appointments alone cannot meet patient demand but a diversified workforce might. Alongside this, efforts to improve care navigation may free up to 41% of GP/ANP appointment slots.
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Empathy is a key health care concept and refers to care that incorporates understanding of patient perspective's, shared decision making, and consideration of the broader context in which illness is experience. Evidence suggests experiences of doctor empathy correlate with improved health outcomes and patient satisfaction. It has also been linked to job satisfaction, and mental wellbeing for doctors. To date, there is a paucity of evidence on empathy levels among medical students. This is critical to understand given that it is a key point at which perceptions and practices of empathy in the longer term might be formed. ⋯ These data will help to provide a better understanding of empathy levels to inform the provision of future empathy training and medical school curriculum design. Given previous evidence linking experiences of empathy to better health outcomes, the findings may also be significant to future patient care.