One of the challenges of reshaping primary care is the ever-present fear of unintended consequences — it brings to mind the analogy of rebuilding a jumbo jet full of people in mid-flight. Do we target specific groups? The editorial by Gina Agarwal et al highlights how we might do so for older adults in social housing. Or do we concentrate on the foundation-stone of practice, the consultation? Roger Jones’ editorial offers much to consider as we define our future relationships in primary care.
Articles on multimorbidity, polypharmacy, and GP deployment in EDs underline the scope for development as well as the complexities. An Analysis article takes a long look at how we protect ethnic minority populations post lockdown. All of this reshaping has to be done in the glare of the media spotlight — who are not always kind to GPs — and research by Trish Greenhalgh’s team in Oxford spotlights the changing depictions of remote consultations in the press.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2021