Pearls

At Red Whale, we are ‘always learning’, and one topic we have covered this year was new for nearly all our team. Alpha-gal syndrome is a tick-borne allergy to red meat, triggered by repeat tick bites.

As we head into the last month of the year, we are starting to see more seasonal illnesses, especially in children. So, for this month’s GP trainee Pearl, we’re covering feverish illness in children under 5.

Wednesday 10 December marks the first NHS Domestic Abuse Awareness Day. To support this initiative, this week’s Pearl highlights our updated article on how primary care can recognise domestic abuse early and provide meaningful help – including for colleagues who may be affected.

This is not an uncommon request and, in busy primary care, it may sometimes seem easiest just to say yes! But there is potential risk to this approach, including missing undisclosed symptoms or risking over-investigation in a healthy, asymptomatic person. How can we navigate this request in primary care?

The NHS has issued a 'flu jab SOS' in response to fears it will be a challenging flu season. Hopefully, this has brought many eligible people into our flu vaccination clinics across primary care. In this week’s Pearl we wanted to share our article on seasonal influenza.

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the commonest cause of pathological vaginal discharge in women of reproductive age. It’s not an easy diagnosis for us to confirm – although we can suspect clinically and manage empirically.  But what about recurrent bacterial vaginosis?

The Red Whale TPDs and trainers have prepared their top tips to ensure that you know all there is to know about this exam and to give you some pearls of wisdom.

We know that the ‘evidence-based practice’ part of the AKT, accounting for 10% of the marks, can cause concern. We have therefore identified and simplified common themes in our article on statistics for the GP trainee. 

Adrenal insufficiency and Addison’s disease can be easy to miss. In this week’s Pearl we share our recently updated article distilling the 2024 NICE guidance. 

The word ‘addiction’ conjures specific images for each of us. Perhaps it is a person struggling to stop smoking in STOPTOBER? Or perhaps it is a behaviour more ‘normalised’ and ubiquitous in our society – alcohol or social media use? All can impact health.

October is National Cholesterol Month so we may see more people come forward to ask for a cholesterol check. And, as we are processing the results, we need to have our antennae out for possible cases of familial hypercholesterolemia. 

Joe Wicks’ recent documentary ‘Licensed to Kill’ has brought this topic back into the spotlight. While the scare-tactic language in the title and promo are perhaps not the best way to support people to make sustained change, the programme contained some important points and may well result in questions coming primary care’s way.  

Genital warts are on the decrease in this country thanks to HPV vaccination, but they are still a common presentation in primary care and GUM clinics. What do you need to know?

We often hear from GP registrars that interpreting LFTs is one of the trickier tests to deal with. So, in this month’s trainee Pearl, we want to share our Liver Disease GEMS.

Women in this situation will commonly seek our advice. Conflicting media coverage over the safety of different menopause treatment options after breast cancer have created a recipe for confusion and frustration for patients and clinicians alike. 

In this week’s Pearl, we share our article on varicella and provide everything you need to know to decide whether post-exposure prophylaxis is needed.

In this week’s Pearl, we share an update of our article on cervical screening... here is what you need to know!

The Primary Care Respiratory Society has drawn our attention to the ‘September surge’ (or autumn asthma spike). This refers to the significant increase in asthma admissions that occurs each September in the UK, particularly impacting children and young people.