Professor Adrian Thomas has recorded a webinar on the life and contribution of Silvanus Thompson,  first president of the Roentgen Society.

It can be viewed on the BIR website. Click here

Dr Margaret McCartney poses a question:

Almost every day general practice, or practitioners, are somewhere in the news. Usually it’s not good news either. Strikes, vacancies, waiting lists: we are riddled with delays and fail to meet targets. But seldom do the mechanisms of the problems – especially the way we work and organise to work – reach the media. In the process of writing a book -The State of Medicine- I started to realise that bad organisation, poor quality NHS spending and non evidence based policy was nothing new. In fact, it was a repeated cycle. We had said goodbye to Dr Finlay but how were we deciding who was replacing him?

The history of general practice is long and precedes the NHS. The doctors and historians who contributed to the series have illuminated a history that makes sense of the present – why GPs have a tension with their contract, being usually contracted to the NHS rather than directly employed by it: why overwork and working days into nights was simply impossible to continue with increased demand. My hope is that by looking backwards we can learn enough to make more sense of how to go forwards.

There is one question I would love historians to tell me: when was the first recorded use of the term ‘general practitioner’? Irvine Louden says 1809, but  @mc_hankins tweeted a reference to a job advert in the Times for ‘a gentleman, properly qualified, and wishing to settle in London, as a general practitioner in one of the three departments of the profession’…I hope they had some respondents.

Dr Margaret McCartney is a general practitioner in Glasgow and BMJ columnist who presented the recent BBC Radio 4 programme Farewell Dr Finlay; a history of general practice. ‘

To hear the programmes go to  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07j7nty

Peter Homan (past president of the BSHM) has sent us a photo of another item from the Victorian sick room.

What is it? What was it used for?  How was it used?

The answers will appear as a comment on this Blog in early August

Members may be interested to know about two BBC radio 4 programmes which tell the history of General Practice from 18^th century surgeon-apothecaries to the early years of the NHS. The programmes can be heard via BBC iplayer. There are contributions from Julian Tudor Hart and Martin Edwards. For more information, access: at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07j7nty

Martyn Thomas

This week’s ‘In our time’ programme discussed penicillin and mentioned the role of Norman Heatley and his crucial role in the story.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07dnnkm

Martyn Thomas