This edition of the BJGP has cancer as its theme and contains several important clinical messages on the subject. Many articles, however, also deal with some of the generic, central tasks of general practice — our core business — including diagnosis and risk communication.
The imperative to make an early, accurate clinical diagnosis whenever possible still strikes me as an unarguable aim in any consultation with a patient who has come seeking an explanation and help for symptoms that they either cannot understand, or cope with, or both. Yet even this is still controversial, and some argue for the diagnostic use of time as an efficient way of allowing symptoms to evolve before potentially unnecessary investigation and referral, which seems about as sensible as standing on a railway platform without a …