Delighted to have received my fellowship from the @rcgp in Glasgow tonight! Also met a big inspiration of mine Prof Sir Sam Everington!

Referrals to secondary care from GPs used to be treated as they were, requests for further support, investigations, and advice from one experienced colleague to another They have now, to the detriment of patients, been treated as merely optional This cannot continue

2004 wasn’t the time Family Doctors were scrapped 2010 seems to be the moment the decline started @Jeremy_Hunt you failed because you didn’t invest in GPs Funding was cut 2014-2024 by 20% per patient, training more but no funding to retain Then there was funding of ARRS 🤷🏻‍♂️

Basically...what the powers that be are saying is this. 'We can't afford the NHS. And to sustain it, you, staff, need to take a below inflation pay-rise aka a cut.' Now- to improve work productivity, you need a couple of other things- beyond pay. Good working conditions, less discrimination The NHS can't offer any of the above. And wonders why the NHS isn't productive. Workforce planning is an ethereal thing in the UK health care system. So we are where we are.

We need something much simpler. Call it a Community Care Alliance, run by regions, or ICBs is the survive. Give it one purpose… Keep people independent at home whenever possible and get them home quickly when they've been in hospital. myemail.constantcontact.com/…

Excellent article

Following last year's hugely successful Mental Health Forum, which explored the impact of smartphones and social media on young people's mental health, this year Dr Caroline Rayment and I agreed it was so important to keep the conversation going, but this time focusing on men and boys. Men and young boys face a silent crisis in mental health, shown nationally by high suicide rates and rising loneliness. Unfortunately, to many boys often grow up learning to hide their feelings instead of asking for help, and many existing services often fail to reach men before a mental health and wellbeing crisis happens. That is why it is so important to acknowledge this challenge and work together to address it, so that men and boys get the attention they rightly deserve. It was great to recently cohost and jointly organise again our second Mental Health Forum in Ilkley, this time specially focusing on men and boys’ mental health. The event brought together approximately 70 professionals from across the healthcare, education, and mental health sectors to have an honest conversation about what is going on in this space, what levels of support are needed, and what are the barriers. We had a great set of speakers, including Dr Luke Evans MP, a long-standing advocate for men's mental health, Dr Tom Bewick, a local GP, Simon Ford, Deputy Headteacher at Ilkley Grammer School, Anthony Casson, Strategic Coordinator for Bradford Council Youth Services and Lisa Stead, the Clinical Lead for Mental Health Support Team for the Bradford District. Their time, expertise, and commitment to supporting young men and boys in our area is invaluable and it was great to hear them share their views. More than anything, the event was aimed at bringing together experts in our community, share experiences, and ensure that we are working collaboratively – rather than in isolated silos – to provide stronger and more holistic support for local young men and boys. I firmly believe that we need dedicated national attention on this issue, which is why a Minister for Men would help focus government policy, provide leadership in this space, direct vital funding and help break the stigma that stops men from speaking out.

Men and young boys face a silent crisis in mental health, shown nationally by high suicide rates and rising loneliness. Unfortunately, to many boys often grow up learning to hide their feelings instead of asking for help, and many existing services often fail to reach men before a mental health and wellbeing crisis happens. That is why it is do important to acknowledge this challenge and work together to address it, so that men and boys get the attention they rightly deserve. It was great to recently cohost and jointly organise alongside Dr Caroline Rayment, a local GP, a second Mental Health Forum in Ilkley, this time specially focusing on men and boys’ mental health. Following last year's hugely successful Mental Health Forum, which explored the impact of smartphones and social media on young people's mental health, this year Dr Rayment and I agreed it was so important to keep the conversation going, but this time focusing on men and boys. The event brought together approximately 70 professionals from across the healthcare, education, and mental health sectors to have an honest conversation about what is going on in this space, what levels of support are needed, and what are the barriers. We had a great set of speakers, including Dr Luke Evans MP, a long-standing advocate for men's mental health, Dr Tom Bewick, a local GP, Simon Ford, Deputy Headteacher at Ilkley Grammer School, Anthony Casson, Strategic Coordinator for Bradford Council Youth Services and Lisa Stead, the Clinical Lead for Mental Health Support Team for the Bradford District. Their time, expertise, and commitment to supporting young men and boys in our area is invaluable and it was great to hear them share their views. More than anything, the event was aimed at bringing together experts in our community, share experiences, and ensure that we are working collaboratively – rather than in isolated silos – to provide stronger and more holistic support for local young men and boys. I firmly believe that we need dedicated national attention on this issue, which is why a Minister for Men would help focus government policy, provide leadership in this space, direct vital funding and help break the stigma that stops men from speaking out.

First Wednesday in August used to be the day when junior Drs started - it is 30 years since I took that path! I still love my job and my patients but NHS bureaucracy and perpetual government reorganisation still have the power to destroy me

Jonathan Harvey AKA Count Binface The Anti-Corruption Candidate for Clacton!

Just reading over the new rules on IG, as circulated in letter from Jim Mackey. It is entirely appropriate to reiterate that patient records should be ONLY accessed for work-relate purposes. But the new rules are draconian and restrict the types of reasons doctors often do 1/

Delighted to have co-hosted this with @_RobbieMoore - a really important topic. Thank you to @drlukeevans for a great talk

Fascinating debate in #Ilkley with @_RobbieMoore and @drlukeevans about the mental health crisis facing young men. Full report in @yorkshirepost soon.

Thank you @_RobbieMoore and @drlukeevans for a great mental health forum in ilkley today! We should talk more about boys and men and their health - good start today

Every day the NHS treats 1.7million pts in England. 1.5million of them in General Practice. Where are we? Anyone? Anyone? @BMA_GP @rcgp @Parody_RCGP

The last 28 years have been fantastic! Ups and downs as life flows along but 2 great kids, great jobs and fab friends x

"The hard truth about underfunding palliative care is that people who are at their most vulnerable – the dying – suffer more pain, more indignity, less choice & less autonomy than they might have." Incredibly, only 30% of hospice care is NHS funded - a national travesty. Please read my piece in today’s @guardian.

Sir Jim Mackey keeps talking frameworks, compliance, and vague incentives, but offers no real solution. ✖️Endless policy talk ✖️Zero action ✖️Words over patients ✖️Bureaucracy over care Routine waits are rising, frail patients miss out, frontline care suffers.

This is true but then how will they allow us to increase our capacity - they hold the purse strings

Thank you @annalouisedixon for bringing this question. The answer was not reassuring