‘What next?’ said David Haslam, giving a keynote at the end of our annual Society for Academic Primary Care conference. He talked passionately about the need to provide quality primary care, about the underpinning evidence base, and the importance of education and training. I squirmed a little as he criticised ‘tick box’ medicine, shorthand these days for the Quality and Outcomes Framework, ready to counter the ‘old chestnut’ arguments of failing to look at the person in front of you in the rush to measure blood pressure and check smoking status, but it was a good point well made.
What next was a 30-minute guilt shop for being away from home for most of the week. A mug with ‘I need a doctor’ in semaphore for the other half; a book on fast cars for a 10-year old …