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#GPnews: Hunt says parents could check children’s rashes online

15:40 So what have you missed today? The big news of the day is that next week’s planned junior doctor strike action will go ahead after talks with the Government have failed to produce an agreement over the contract. 

Pulse has also learnt from more than one source over the weekend that the Government walked out of talks ‘mid-conversation’, but this was denied by both the BMA and the DH.

Elsewhere, we have our analysis of the Special LMC Conference, around how the fightback has begun.

15:25 Jeremy Hunt has been once again making friends and influencing doctors. This time, he has called on patients to check their children’s rashes on Google.

The Independent reports him as saying: ‘We may well need more [NHS] 111 doctors and nurses. But if you’re worried about a rash your child has, an online alternative – where you look at photographs and say ”my child’s rash looks like this one” – may be a quicker way of getting to the bottom of whether this is serious or not.’

It’s created quite a few online games for Mr Hunt to play:

11:00 Amid all the fun and games around the Special LMCs Conference, there was something else capturing the attention of GPs at the weekend – this provocative piece from the deputy editor of the Sunday Times, Sarah Baxter on whether we need GPs at all because, apparently, GPs cannot be bothered. Instead, she argues, pharmacists can do it all (with ‘minute clinics’). You can read BMA deputy chair Dr Kailash Chand’s repost to her here: Yes, Sarah Baxter, we need GPs.

It even led to a new hashtag: #GPheroes

10:25 The Guardian has gone with GPC chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul’s defence of the care home vote. Again, just to stress, GPs don’t actually have the power to unilaterally create separate contracts for care home visits…

10:10 An interesting article on junior doctor burnout for your Monday morning reading:



9:30 It’s a little like after the Lord Mayor’s show today. But regardless, the Mail has splashed on the Special LMCs Conference. But it is perhaps not the story you would have expected, or hoped for. They lead on the vote to call for separate contracts for care homes. Casual readers of the Mail might be forgiven for thinking that GPs have the power to change that themselves…

Got a story? Let us know by tweeting the hashtag #GPnews or emailing newsdesk@pulsetoday.co.uk