Women's attendance for breast screening may be increased by raising GPs' perceptions of the threat of breast cancer, addressing their concerns about breast screening and enhancing their views of the importance of the role of primary care in a national screening programme.

A study was undertaken to investigate the stress experienced by healthy siblings of children undergoing hospitalisation for an acute condition. Nineteen children aged between seven and 11 years old, who had had a sibling hospitalised for 24 hours or more for a surgical, medical or traumatic condition were interviewed. The amount of stress experienced by the siblings was quantified using a perceived change scale (PCS). It was found that 77 per cent of the subjects included in the study had experienced stress during the hospitalisation of a sibling. Siblings over the age of seven years, and those who had visited the hospitalised child more than once, had experienced more behavioural changes. Of those who experienced stress, 77 per cent had feelings of sadness during that time.

Dr Pat Manson, the GP, was compassionate, caring, conscientious. As a father, he was committed, involved, proud. And then he took his own life. Why? The question that will never be answered, by his family or by his colleagues, us among them.

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