RCGP Research Paper of the Year 2017: of relevance to the General Practice Forward View?

Abstract

The Research Paper of the Year (RPY), awarded by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), gives recognition to an individual or group of researchers who have undertaken and published an exceptional piece of research relating to general practice or primary care. The award spans six categories, with one overall winner. This year, for the 2017 award, we had 72 submissions. The support provided by the RCGP’s Clinical Innovation and Research Centre (CIRC) ensured that the judging process was efficient — I hope the members of the six sub-panels, who gave up their time for judging papers, agree. The panel at which we discussed the overall winner was co-chaired by Jonathan Mant, due to my conflict of interest on two papers — thank you, Jonathan. It might be useful to reflect on the relevance of the winning papers to the General Practice Forward View 1 ( GPFV ), which, when published in 2016, emphasised the interests of GPs and their patients at the heart of all proposals. The GPFV referred to the low morale due to the ‘daily struggle with growing workload’ (page 8). The paper winning the Mental Health category of RPY category 4, (Neurology, Mental Health, and Dementia), and published in the British Journal of General Practice , describes the barriers and facilitators that face GPs as they consider seeking treatment for distress, as well as exploring the ways in which they may protect themselves from workplace stresses.2 Joanna Spiers says: ‘The GP Forward View cites excessive workload as being the main pressure in general …