In this month's episode, the team reports exclusively from Pulse LIVE London. Pulse's editorial adviser Dr Keith Hopcroft takes us through his favourite clinical sessions, and Pulse editor Sofia Lind gives us the highlights from her Big Interview with Baroness Clare Gerada.

Dr Hopcroft interviews Dr Stephanie Kayode, consultant allergist at the department of adult allergy at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. She explores how GPs can identify patients who are falsely labelled as having a penicillin allergy, and how GPs should go about attempting to de-label them.

He then speaks to GP, locum consultant in pain and musculoskeletal medicine and NHS Northwest London musculoskeletal and diagnostics clinical lead Dr Imran Sajid, about how GPs can assess and manage back pain with or without sciatica or radiculopathy in primary care - including when it could indicate bone cancer.

Lastly, Sofia and Baroness Gerada discuss the failed assisted dying bill and how it may return, what GPs can do to get policy makers to sit up and listen, and how general practice can learn to work with AI.

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This episode was produced by Maya Dhillon and Mollie Fraser-Andrews.

The new episode of Pulse in Focus: The Podcast for GPs is now live and available on all podcast platforms.

In this month’s episode, our team unpicks the new guidance from NICE, recommending use of weight loss drug semaglutide (Wegovy) to prevent further heart attack and stroke.

Pulse editorial adviser Dr Keith Hopcroft is joined by Professor Ahmet Fuat, honorary professor of primary care cardiology at Durham University and GP with extended role in cardiorenal medicine.

The pair discuss the evidence base behind the recommendation, what the rollout might look like, who is eligible, who will be responsible for managing care including lifestyle support, and how it fits in with existing NICE guidance on treating patients with type 2 diabetes.

Professor Fuat also considers whether semaglutide has the potential to go to be used for primary prevention in future.

We round up our episode with editor Sofia Lind discussing where general practice stands following a referendum on the 2026/27 GP contract, in which 98.9% rejected the Government’s imposed changes.

She tells senior journalist Maya Dhillon about ‘the difficult position’ she believes the GPC is in, as it has threatened collective action by 30 April (unless the Government pauses its implementation of ‘mandatory’ A&G) while the Government has said this may mean missing out on a primary negotiation role in new GMS contract discussions.

For more information about how to attend the Community Pharmacy and General Practice Conference, click here.

Free registration for Pulse newsletters here.

This episode was produced by Maya Dhillon and Mollie Fraser-Andrews.

Senior journalist Maya Dhillon is joined by Anna Colivicchi, deputy news editor, and Dr Keith Hopcroft, GP and editorial adviser, to analyse and explain the changes introduced by the 2026/27 GP contract.

The trio go through all the major headlines - including new same-day requirements around ‘clinically urgent patients', a shift in funding for a new practice-level recruitment scheme, and mandated collaboration between practices and ICBs.

Anna and Keith discuss the absorption of advice and guidance (A&G) from an enhanced service into the core contract, contemplating how this 'blurs' the line between GP and specialist remit; and how this will work in practice.

The discussion comes as NHS England's national director for primary care Dr Amanda Doyle wrote exclusively for Pulse last week, explaining their rationale for the move.

Keith also provides a handy overview of the changes to QOF, including the addition of two new obesity indicators and the provision of 'improvement incentives' for childhood vaccination rates.

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This episode was produced by Maya Dhillon and Mollie Fraser-Andrews.