The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
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Observational Study
Private prescribing of controlled opioids in England, 2014-2021: a retrospective observational study.
Trends in NHS opioid prescribing have been well published, yet trends in private prescribing of opioids have not been widely established. ⋯ Controlled opioids prescribed by private prescribers in England decreased and were primarily prescribed in London. To ensure patient safety, the monitoring and surveillance of controlled opioids dispensed privately should continue and items linked to 'unidentified doctors' should be addressed further.
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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.
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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.
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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.