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Background: First Contact Physiotherapy Practitioners (FCPPs) provide expert care for patients with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions in General Practice. Access to FCPPs can facilitate timely care and efficient use of health services. However, there is little evidence about patient experiences of accessing FCPP appointments. Objective: To explore the experiences of patients with MSK conditions who have accessed an FCPP appointment in a General Practice setting in the UK. Design: Exploratory qualitative design. Methods: Patients with MSK conditions who had experience of accessing FCPP appointments were recruited via social media. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted and recorded via MS Teams. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Of 13 patients interviewed, there were 10 females and three males, with an age range between 20 and 80 years. The main themes identified were: (1) Awareness of FCPP, (2) Access routes, (3) Facilitators to access, (4) Barriers to access, (5) Likelihood of re‐accessing FCPP. Awareness of FCPP was generally low amongst participants. There were a variety of routes to access FCPP appointments; some were felt to be sub‐optimal by participants. Facilitators included quick/easy access to FCPP. Barriers included difficulty contacting General Practitioner (GP) surgeries and public perception of needing to see a GP initially. The likelihood of re‐consultation with a FCPP was low when participants had disappointing care experiences. Conclusion: This study provides new evidence about patient experiences of accessing FCPP. It explores positive and negative aspects of access from patients' perspectives. It also highlights areas for improvement in terms of GP staff/patient awareness and understanding of FCPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercial determinants of health (CDoH) describe the adverse health effects associated with for-profit actors and their actions. Despite efforts to advance the definition, conceptualization, and empirical analyses of CDoH, the term's practical application to mitigate these effects requires the capacity to measure the influences of specific components of CDoH and the cumulative impacts of CDoH on the health and well-being of specific populations. Building on the Global Burden of Disease Study, we begin by conceptualizing CDoH as risk factor exposures that span agency and structural influences. We identify 6 components of these influences and propose an initial set of indicators and datasets to rank exposures as high, medium, or low. These are combined into a commercial determinants of health index (CDoHi) and illustrated by 3 countries. Although now a proof of concept, comparative analysis of CDoH exposures by population, over time and space, and their associated health outcomes will become possible with further development of indicators and datasets. Expansion of the CDoHi and application to varied populations groups will enable finer targeting of interventions to reduce health harms. The measurement of improvements to health and wellness from such interventions will, in turn, inform overall efforts to address the CDoH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender norms, roles and relations differentially affect women, men, and non-binary individuals' vulnerability to disease. Outbreak response measures also have immediate and long-term gendered effects. However, gender-based analysis of outbreaks and responses is limited by lack of data and little integration of feminist analysis within global health scholarship. Recognising these barriers, this paper applies a gender matrix methodology, grounded in feminist political economy approaches, to evaluate the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and response in four case studies: China, Hong Kong, Canada, and the UK. Through a rapid scoping of documentation of the gendered effects of the outbreak, it applies the matrix framework to analyse findings, identifying common themes across the case studies: financial discrimination, crisis in care, and unequal risks and secondary effects. Results point to transnational structural conditions which put women on the front lines of the pandemic at work and at home while denying them health, economic and personal security – effects that are exacerbated where racism and other forms of discrimination intersect with gender inequities. Given that women and people living at the intersections of multiple inequities are made additionally vulnerable by pandemic responses, intersectional feminist responses should be prioritised at the beginning of any crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Moving on from high secure psychiatric care can be a complex and potentially stressful experience, which may hinder progression. A leavers' group in a UK high secure hospital is offered to support patients with this transition.Aims: The aims of this study are to investigate characteristics of patients referred for the leavers' group and compare outcomes for leavers' group graduates with those for patients who never attended a leavers' group for any reason.Methods: A retrospective quasi-experimental design was applied to data extracted from various records sources - within and outside the high security hospital.Results: About one-fifth of patients who left the hospital on trial leave during the study were referred to the leavers' group (N = 109). Referred patients were significantly more likely to have either been admitted from another high-security hospital or transferred from prison for treatment and have a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Patients not referred had a significantly higher rate of previously refusing to participate in groups. There was a tendency for rate of return from trial leave for group graduates to be lower than that of patients who did not attend the leavers' group, but this just failed to reach statistical significance (rate ratio [RR] = 1.04; CI 0.97-1.11).Conclusions: A leavers' group appeared to be a valued therapy option for people who had spent a long time in high secure psychiatric care, or those who continued to require hospital treatment beyond prison tariffs. There was a low return rate from trial leave, which made the evaluation of this outcome difficult. A detailed study into both the reasons for return from trial leave and successes would provide further information on ideal preparation for moving on. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a history of championing HIV/AIDS as a human rights issue, and a rhetorical commitment to health as a human right, European states and institutions have shifted from a rights-based response to a risk management approach to HIV/AIDS since the economic recession of 2008. An interdisciplinary perspective is applied to analyze health policy changes at the national, regional, and global levels by drawing on data from key informant interviews, and institutional and civil society documents. It is demonstrated that, in the context of austerity measures, member states such as the UK and Greece reduced commitments to rights associated with HIV/AIDS; at the regional level, the EU failed to develop rights-based approaches to address the vulnerabilities and health care needs of key populations affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly migrants and sex workers; and at the global level, the EU backtracked on commitments to global health and is prioritizing the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies over the human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. The focus within and from the EU is on containment, efficiency, and cost reduction. The rights of those most affected are no longer prioritized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about a trove of relics possessed by a church in Exeter, England, and a legend that they were collected and donated in the 10th century by King Æthelstan. Traditional ideas of the religious significance of relics and reliquaries are described, and their symbolism is analyzed in historical and political terms. The example of Pippin the Short, who founded the Carolingian dynasty in Europe, is cited as an instance of the usefulness of relics in politics. Pippin used ceremonies involving relics on several occasions as a means of sanctifying his usurpation of power from the Merovingian dynasty. Æthelstan's relationships with Pippin's heirs is also discussed.

This article reports on the post-investment performance of a group of U.K. companies in which venture capital was invested. Base period field work data are combined with FAME database evidence to track performance, in the light of initial investor-investee relations. Cluster analysis is used to separate good from bad investments, without reference to "expert evaluation"--it is all done from performance indicators. Multiple regression analysis is then used to determine the impact that investees' organizational features, including their monitoring and control systems, and risk management strategies, have had on their post-investment performance. The article shows how some investment characteristics, like information sharing and performance-linked equity schemes, affect performance in a positive fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the link between land ownership and social change in late nineteenth-century Britain. According to one study, basing on the proportion of businessmen who held wealth in the land, holders of "new wealth" were integrated with old. Unfortunately, the selection of businessmen is biased towards those of interest to business historians. A more objective study, where different, pre-defined groups were compared, allows a proper investigation of the role of the land and wealth in British social history. This study can be used to describe the rise of professional elites, including the managers of businesses and trained government bureaucrats.

The article presents an obituary for Robert Gladstone Smith, former general practitioner and secretary of the Sutton and Cheam Medical Society in England.

Tobacco industry public relations campaigns have played a key role in challenges to standardised cigarette packaging. This paper presents a comparative analysis of industry campaigns in Australia and the United Kingdom, which have implemented standardised packaging legislation; Canada, where policy has been adopted but not yet implemented; and the Netherlands, which has considered, but not enacted regulation. Campaigns were identified via Google searches, tobacco industry websites, media coverage, government submissions and previous research; analysis focused on issue framing and supporting evidence. Public relations campaigns in all case study countries drew on similar frames - the illicit trade in tobacco products, the encroaching 'nanny state', lack of evidence for the effectiveness of standardised packaging, a slippery slope of regulation, and inherent threats to intellectual property rights. These claims were supported by industry research, front groups and commissioned reports by accountancy firms, but were not with verifiable research. Independent evidence that contradicted industry positions was overlooked. Similarities in structure and content of public relations campaigns in countries that have enacted or considered regulation points to a strategic co-ordinated approach by cigarette manufacturers. Countries considering standardised packaging policy can expect powerful opposition from the tobacco industry. Tobacco control communities and policy makers can learn from previous experience, and share best practise in countering industry arguments., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)