Communication barriers that affect medication adherence in patients with learning disabilities

Prescribing considerations in the use of oral medication in Parkinson's disease

People with Parkinson's (PwP) have depleted levels of dopamine in the brain. From the 1970s, levodopa, which is metabolised to dopamine, was utilised to treat the disabling motor symptoms. Initially...

Living with long COVID

The new guideline for NICE (2021) recommends that patients presenting with new or ongoing symptoms 4 weeks or later after an initial COVID-19 infection should have the following investigations done; a...

Understanding personal asthma action plans

The National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) (Royal College of Physicians, 2014) investigated the clinical records of 195 adults and children who died of asthma between February 2012 and January 2013....

Understanding primary prevention of cardiovascular disease

The NHS Health Check programme was designed to identify people with risk factors for CVD and ensure that they had access to the support and medication they might need to reduce that risk (Waterall,...

Medicines reconciliation of biologics on a primary care clinical system

DMARDs (Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs) such as methotrexate, azathioprine and leflunomide, licensed in dermatological, gastrointestinal and rheumatic conditions are not strictly biologics....

Remote consultations, prescribing and virtual teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Before the pandemic, the modernisation of the NHS included digitalisation and the use of remote consultations (NHS UK, 2019; Welsh Government, 2019; NHS Digital, 2020). There had been a slow but...

Evidence-based use of newer agents in type 2 diabetes

Recent accumulating evidence on the use of newer therapies in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is helping to define their position in treatment. This information coupled with the increasing priority given...

Diabetes care: a time to review prescribing approaches and reach out to local communities

There has been a bidirectional relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes, with increased rates of new diagnosis and an increased risk of severe COVID-19 for those already diagnosed (Rubino et al,...

Managing the side effects of contraception

Headache is a reported side effect of all hormonal methods of contraception, but is also very common in women of reproductive age, particularly those age >35 years old (Grossman Barr, 2010). Because...

Cardiovascular disease: the gender divide

According to statistics from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) there are 830 000 women in the UK living with coronary heart disease (CHD), and around 380 000 women in the UK have survived a heart...

End-of-life care in a pandemic: a primary healthcare perspective

This has been unprecedented time in end-of-life care at the authors' surgery, the speed at which a decisive plan was put together and commnicated to staff ensured the best possible care was still...