The European journal of general practice
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The management of chronic diseases, in the context of an ageing population and increasing life expectancy, is one of the major challenges facing the Irish health system. In 2020, a chronic disease management programme [CDM] was introduced in Irish general practice as part of a transformation in health policy to meet the changing needs of the population. ⋯ GPs value the framework provided by CDM for their approach to the management of chronic disease. However, challenges around practice capacity and its impact both on the delivery of CDM and aspects of routine care highlight the importance for policy makers to provide continued support to strengthen the general practice infrastructure.
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Health advocacy (HA) involves purposeful actions to inform, mobilise, and organise activities to address social determinants of health affecting individuals or communities. It is a fundamental component of medical practice, deemed mandatory by professional and educational bodies. Therefore, including health advocacy training in pre- and post-graduate medical education is crucial. ⋯ Competencies for the HA role are very broad in perspective and show commonalities with the FPs' 'professional', 'expert' and 'leader' roles. Longitudinally integration of the HA training into the national 'Family Medicine Residency Training Core Curriculum' through participatory processes and training of FM trainers in HA is strongly recommended.
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To explore how it feels to be a burnt out GP in the NHS. ⋯ Burnout threatens a GP's sense of identity, purpose, and functioning in their lives, and ultimately can be life-threatening. Active listening to GP distress and a system wide approach to managing distress and burnout is urgently required.
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Often described as a natural economic trend, the prices that pharmaceutical companies charge for new medicines have skyrocketed in recent years. Companies claim these prices are justified because of the 'value' new treatments represent or that they reflect the high costs and risks associated with the research and development process. They also claim that the revenues generated through these high prices are required to pay for continued innovation. ⋯ As a result, people and health systems worldwide struggle to pay for the increasingly expensive health products, with growing inequities in access to even life-saving medicines while the biopharmaceutical industry and its financiers are the most lucrative business sectors. As the extreme COVID-19 vaccine inequities once again highlighted, we urgently need to reform the social contract between governments, the biopharmaceutical industry, and the public and restore its original health purpose. Policymakers must redesign policies and financing of the pharmaceutical research and development ecosystem such that public and private sectors work together towards the shared objective of responding to public health and patients' needs, rather than maximising financial return because medicines should not be a luxury.