Pearls

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.  

In this week’s Pearl, we take a look at the evidence for and potential benefits of CBT for menopause symptoms, and consider access issues – you can make up your own mind!  

One of the skills you will develop during GP training is safety-netting. Safety-netting is an essential consultation tool we can use to manage our patients safely, while acknowledging the uncertainty that exists and communicating this clearly.

NICE produced updated guidance on nutrition and weight management in pregnancy earlier this year. In this week’s Pearl, we share all.

For this week’s Pearl, we wanted to share our article on emotionally-based school avoidance (previously less-helpfully called ‘school refusal’) so that we are prepared with key information if questions come our way.

This week, the BBC reported that the UK ‘gonorrhoea vaccine’ became widely available through sexual health services from Monday 4 August, so here is our article to help you with any consultations you may have on this!

So, here we are at the beginning of another academic year! This month we’re sharing our article on Workplace-based Assessment (WPBA). We’ve even mapped out a 3-year plan, based on the RCGP guidance, to help you to pace your training.  

For women who choose to breastfeed, mastitis can be painful and unwelcome, and they often seek our advice and support – but are we offering the right information?

Monday 28 July is the WHO World Hepatitis Day so we thought we would re-share our article on hepatitis C – a popular and impactful topic over the past 18 months on our update courses.

For people with hyperhidrosis, this is a year-round challenge that significantly impacts quality of life, relationships and work. Hyperhidrosis is thought to be under-reported, possibly because people feel embarrassed. So, how should we approach the consultation if people do raise concerns? 

To support Alcohol Awareness Week, this week’s Pearl talks about how to use the AUDIT tool to identify potential alcohol use disorder, deliver brief intervention and how to prevent, spot and refer acute alcohol withdrawal.

In this week’s Pearl, we share our newly-updated article on contraception and weight, which includes this MHRA guidance. Read more to learn more about considerations we need to make in supporting people living with overweight and obesity.

Let’s face it – these are often left to the last minute. But thinking about them clearly in advance, and defining what you want to achieve going forward, can be more rewarding, both educationally and personally!

Long summer days and more outdoor sports activities lead to more MSK presentations on the triage list. Many of us have joints we feel ‘less confident’ about, and the heel and ankle is definitely a common area people ask questions about on our MSK courses!

A ban on the sale of single-use, disposable vapes came into force on Sunday 8 June 2025. The story is nuanced, and we unpack it all in our recently-updated article.