Doctors may, on occasion, receive a request from a patient’s employer for a medical report to be delivered directly to the HR department, without the patient seeing it. However, before any medical report can be provided, you must be satisfied that the patient has given valid consent to the release of the information.

Dr Laura Davison, a GP registrar from Milton Keynes, shares her thoughts on topical issues facing GP trainees. Here she explores how to break the ice in general practice

Kate Taylor, MPS Clinical Risk Manager, highlights the importance of infection control in general practice

Dr Paula–Jane Marrett, Dr Fiona Boyd and Beverley Chapman recently won the poster competition at the annual Patient Safety Congress. They share their research and findings

MPS statistics suggest that a case relating to the delayed diagnosis of melanoma is opened every two weeks. Dr Pawan Randev argues that skin lesion photography is a way of improving feedback on dermatology referrals

More than half of UK practices have removed patients from their practice list in the last three years. Medicolegal adviser Dr Jayne Molodynski investigates

Clinical Risk Manager Julie Price shares simple tips for handling test results

In the world of NHS reform, there’s little room for anything else but doublethink. Dr Euan Lawson, a locum GP from Cumbria, shares his views

MPS Director of Policy and Communications, Dr Stephanie Bown, fears that a duty of candour proposed for GPs will not inspire the cultural change the NHS requires

Stephanie Varah, Chief Executive of the National Association for Patient Participation (NAPP) shares the benefits of building a partnership with your patients

Would you like to have some say in shaping future GP training? The AiT Committee can help you do just that. Charlotte Hudson finds out more

In this alert Julie Price, MPS’s Clinical Risk Programme Manager, highlights the risk of healthcare assistants performing immunisations

Some years ago we teamed up with the UK’s leading provider of workplace advice to provide the Croner helpline to our Practice Xtra members. Louise Barnes, Senior Employment Consultant at Croner, reveals the top five workplace issues.

Medication errors account for approximately 20% of all clinical negligence claims against doctors in both primary and secondary care. The costs associated with adverse events and inappropriate prescribing has been estimated at more than £750 million per year. This factsheet gives advice about avoiding prescribing errors.