Dr Robin Chesters had been a partner in a practice for six years before he bit the bullet and decided to launch his career as a locum GP. Sara Williams asks: What’s so great about locuming?

Elderly people are the fastest growing demographic in the UK. But are care levels rising to meet their needs? Sara Williams meets a surgery in Northampton who have improved their continuity of care, and changed the face of practice

Jonathan Haslam looks at the difficulties created for general practice by the increasing numbers of non-English speakers in the UK.

Childhood vaccination errors are a national problem in general practice, Julie Wilson, MPS’s clinical risk programme manager and Dr Tom Lloyd, medicolegal adviser, get to the point of safe immunisations

Dr Richard Stacey and Sara Williams tackle some of the typical questions asked by practices about chaperones

Document telephone consultations contemporaneously. Obtain and document a thorough history. Telephone consultations do not give a GP the opportunity to assess clinical signs.

Dr David Coombs, a GP with a special interest in dermatology, explores the risks of performing minor surgery in primary care

Julie Price, Clinical Risk Programme Manager, investigates whether practices are handling controlled drugs safely

Dr Richard Stacey explores the extent of medical records and highlights where important information can be found beyond the core GP records

One of the biggest risks in treating elderly patients in nursing homes is communication. Dr Rachel Birch, a sessional GP and MPS medicolegal adviser, reviews a case where communication failure led to patient harm. she then answers typical medicolegal queries around community care

Dr Richard Stacey provides a step-by-step approach to dealing with patients who do not comply

This guidance from MPS has been prepared in light of the current concerns about the Ebola virus.