Pulse (magazine)

Last updated

Pulse
EditorJaimie Kaffash
Categories Medicine
FrequencyMonthly
PublisherCogora Ltd
Founded1960
CountryUnited Kingdom
Website pulsetoday.co.uk

Pulse is a monthly news magazine and website on British primary care. It has been distributed without charge to general practitioners in the United Kingdom since 1960. Its stories are regularly picked up by national and regional newspapers. [1]

Contents

It is one of a number of magazines often referred to by GPs as "the comics". [2]

History

In 2000, the title was owned by Miller Freeman UK which went through some restructuring; the part of the business that continued to own Pulse was known as United Business Media (UBM). [3] In February 2012, UBM sold its agriculture and medical portfolios, including Pulse Media Ltd to the founders of Briefing Media for £10 million, with the new business being known as Briefing Media Group. [4]

Pulse was bought by Cogora, an 'integrated media and marketing services' company in November 2013. [5]

Digital presence

Pulse is the name of the print version of the magazine, while the website is called PulseToday.

An award-winning app called 'Pulse Toolkit' provides GPs with clinical tools. [6] [7] [8]

Articles picked up by national media

Pulse carries surveys of GP opinions. [9] In 2005 its report that when more than 1,000 GPs were asked about their voting intentions, only one in 10 said they intended to vote Labour was reported prominently by the Daily Telegraph. [10] In 2007 its report that 19% of 309 GPs surveyed said they did not believe abortion should be legal was picked up by the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard. [11]

In 2015, a report into NHS England's personal health budget scheme was picked up by the BBC, [12] and The Guardian [13] among other publications.

Awards

Related Research Articles

General practice is the name given in various nations, such as the United Kingdom, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to the services provided by general practitioners. In some nations, such as the US, similar services may be described as family medicine or primary care. The term Primary Care in the UK may also include services provided by community pharmacy, optometrist, dental surgery and community hearing care providers. The balance of care between primary care and secondary care - which usually refers to hospital based services - varies from place to place, and with time. In many countries there are initiatives to move services out of hospitals into the community, in the expectation that this will save money and be more convenient.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UBM plc</span> UK-based media company

UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, England, before its acquisition by Informa in 2018. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its main focus was on B2B events, but its principal operations included live media and business-to-business communications, marketing services and data provision, and it principally served the technology, healthcare, trade and transport, ingredients and fashion industries. UBM was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family medicine</span> Medical specialty

Family medicine is a medical specialty within primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a primary care physician, is named a family physician. It is often referred to as general practice and a practitioner as a general practitioner. Historically, their role was once performed by any doctor with qualifications from a medical school and who works in the community. However, since the 1950s, family medicine / general practice has become a specialty in its own right, with specific training requirements tailored to each country. The names of the specialty emphasize its holistic nature and/or its roots in the family. It is based on knowledge of the patient in the context of the family and the community, focusing on disease prevention and health promotion. According to the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), the aim of family medicine is "promoting personal, comprehensive and continuing care for the individual in the context of the family and the community". The issues of values underlying this practice are usually known as primary care ethics.

General medical services (GMS) is the range of healthcare that is provided by general practitioners as part of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. The NHS specifies what GPs, as independent contractors, are expected to do and provides funding for this work through arrangements known as the General Medical Services Contract. Today, the GMS contract is a UK-wide arrangement with minor differences negotiated by each of the four UK health departments. In 2013 60% of practices had a GMS contract as their principal contract. The contract has sub-sections and not all are compulsory. The other forms of contract are the Personal Medical Services or Alternative Provider Medical Services contracts. They are designed to encourage practices to offer services over and above the standard contract. Alternative Provider Medical Services contracts, unlike the other contracts, can be awarded to anyone, not just GPs, don't specify standard essential services, and are time limited. A new contract is issued each year.

Health and Social Care is the publicly funded healthcare system in Northern Ireland. Although having been created separately to the National Health Service (NHS), it is nonetheless considered a part of the overall national health service in the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland Executive through its Department of Health is responsible for its funding, while the Public Health Agency is the executive agency responsible for the provision of public health and social care services across Northern Ireland. It is free of charge to all citizens of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

The NHS treatments blacklist is an informal name for a list of medicines and procedures which will not be funded by public money except in exceptional cases. These include but are not limited to procedures which the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has ruled of limited effectiveness and particular brand name medicines. In 2017 there was a proposal for 3,200 over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to be restricted and 18 procedures to be added to the list. This generated some controversy amongst doctors with some arguing that OTC should be blacklisted instead, and others believing the move did not take into account individual patient needs.

Health Service Journal (HSJ) is a news service that covers policy and management in the National Health Service (NHS) in England.

Property Week is a UK business-to-business magazine which reports on the worldwide commercial and residential property market. It reports news, features and analysis and the latest information from the industry - from development opportunities to investment prospects, professional and legal coverage to regional surveys, plus vacancies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Health Service (England)</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in England

The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde. Primarily funded by the government from general taxation, and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS provides healthcare to all legal English residents and residents from other regions of the UK, with most services free at the point of use for most people. The NHS also conducts research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Health Service</span> Publicly-funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom

The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom, comprising the NHS in England, NHS Scotland and NHS Wales. Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland was created separately and is often locally referred to as "the NHS". The original three systems were established in 1948 as part of major social reforms following the Second World War. The founding principles were that services should be comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery—a health service based on clinical need, not ability to pay. Each service provides a comprehensive range of health services, provided without charge for people ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom apart from dental treatment and optical care. In England, NHS patients have to pay prescription charges; some, such as those aged over 60, or those on certain state benefits, are exempt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health and Social Care Act 2012</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provided for the most extensive reorganisation of the structure of the National Health Service in England to date. It removed responsibility for the health of citizens from the Secretary of State for Health, which the post had carried since the inception of the NHS in 1948. It abolished primary care trusts (PCTs) and strategic health authorities (SHAs) and transferred between £60 billion and £80 billion of "commissioning", or healthcare funds, from the abolished PCTs to several hundred clinical commissioning groups, partly run by the general practitioners (GPs) in England. A new executive agency of the Department of Health, Public Health England, was established under the act on 1 April 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinical commissioning group</span> Healthcare organisation in the United Kingdom

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were National Health Service (NHS) organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished, and replaced by Integrated care systems as a result of the Health and Care Act 2022.

Out-of-hours services are the arrangements to provide access to healthcare at times when General Practitioner surgeries are closed; in the United Kingdom this is normally between 6.30pm and 8am, at weekends, at Bank Holidays and sometimes if the practice is closed for educational sessions.

The Modality Partnership is a large GP partnership formed in 2009. Such large practices are often described as a "super partnership". In September 2023 Modality Mid Sussex was placed in Special Measures after a report by the CQC. Residents experienced major problems with many trying to contact Modality for months yet not being able to get an appointment. According to the King's Fund in 2016 it was one of England’s largest super-practices. In 2018 it had about 400,000 patients and was thought to be the largest practice in England.

Patient record access in the United Kingdom has developed most fully in respect of the GP record, because computerisation in that field is almost universal. British hospitals were slower to move into electronic records. From 1 April 2015 all GP practices in England have to provide online services to patients, including access to summary electronic medical records.

EMIS Health, formerly known as Egton Medical Information Systems, supplies electronic patient record systems and software used in primary care, acute care and community pharmacy in the United Kingdom. The company is based in Leeds. It claims that more than half of GP practices across the UK use EMIS Health software and holds number one or two market positions in its main markets. In June 2022 the company was acquired by Bordeaux UK Holdings II Limited, an affiliate of UnitedHealth's Optum business for a 49% premium on EMIS's closing share price.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Wrigley</span> British medical doctor (born 1969)

David Wrigley is a British medical doctor who works as a general practitioner (GP) in Lancashire and is the deputy chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) Council. He is a member of the Labour Party and Socialist Health Association.

Peter J P Holden is a doctor who works as a General Practitioner in Matlock, Derbyshire. He is a member of the Council of the British Medical Association, member of its GP committee since 1981 who was a negotiator with the General Practitioner's Committee (GPC) for more the 15 years.

GP Federations became popular among English general practitioners after 2010 as a means to exploit the opportunities—or mitigate the threats—posed by the Five Year Forward View proposals in the English NHS which envisaged delivering primary care at a larger scale than the traditional GP list. It is widely believed that ‘Practices cannot survive on their own – they have to look at ways of making themselves stronger.’ 15 sites were selected in December 2015 to test new enhanced primary care models serving populations of 30,000 to 50,000 patients. Some, but by no means all, clinical commissioning groups have given financial support to encourage the formation of federations.

Livi is a digital healthcare service by Kry International AB, a Swedish online healthcare company based in Stockholm. Kry International was established in 2015 and operates as Kry in Norway and Sweden. In France and the United Kingdom, it operates as Livi.

References

  1. "Pulse in the news". Pulse. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  2. Carlisle, Daloni (7 April 2008). "Do GPs with special interests have a future in the NHS?" . Health Service Journal. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  3. Michalczyk, Imelda (8 June 2000). "Miller Freeman to split magazines and web brands". Marketing . Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  4. Rushton, Katherine (6 February 2012). "Farmers Guardian is sold as UBM shifts from print". The Telegraph. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  5. Limited, Cogora. "Cogora to Acquire Leading GP Brand 'Pulse' -- LONDON, November 1, 2013 /PR Newswire UK/ --". www.prnewswire.co.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  6. "Save time during consultations with Pulse's free Toolkit app". Pulse Today. Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  7. "Pulse Toolkit on the App Store". Apple iTunes. Cogora. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  8. "Pulse Toolkit – Android Apps". Google Play. Cogora. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  9. "Pulse launches major national survey of GP burnout". Pulse Today. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  10. "Disillusioned doctors ready to turn on Labour at election". Daily Telegraph. 5 March 2005. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  11. "Media Watch". Health Service Journal. 9 May 2007. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  12. "NHS personal health budgets spent on holidays and horse riding". BBC News. September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  13. Meikle, James (September 2015). "NHS health budgets funding holidays, Nintendo consoles and a pedalo ride". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  14. "Winners of the PPA Independent Publisher Awards 2014". PPA. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  15. "Middleton crowned at MJA Summer Awards". Medical Journalists' Association. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  16. "PPA Awards 2017 2016 Winners". PPA Awards 2017. Archived from the original on 29 April 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2017.