Women continue to experience delays in diagnosis, variation in care and unequal access to specialist services across a range of common gynaecological conditions. As more women's health is managed in primary care, GPs are often balancing diagnostic uncertainty, increasing patient expectations and limited access to specialist services. This panel will explore the barriers to delivering high-quality women's health care and discuss practical approaches to improving diagnosis, management and patient outcomes in everyday general practice.

Discussion points

• Why are women still experiencing delays in diagnosis?
• Navigating referral pathways and access to specialist care
• Supporting women while awaiting investigation or specialist assessment
• Practical changes that can improve women's health care in general practice

Obesity is now recognised as a chronic relapsing disease and one of the biggest drivers of ill health in primary care. As treatment options expand and patient demand continues to grow, GPs are increasingly managing complex conversations around lifestyle interventions, anti-obesity medicines, long-term weight management and obesity-related comorbidities. This session will explore the practical challenges of modern obesity care and how primary care can support patients using the latest evidence.

Learning objectives:

• Tailor obesity management to individual patient risk, comorbidities and treatment goals
• Support patients using anti-obesity medicines, including those receiving privately initiated treatment
• Manage long-term treatment, monitoring and common challenges, including adverse effects and muscle loss
• Integrate obesity management into the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic disease

Through practical case studies, this panel will examine cancer presentations that can be difficult to assess in primary care, including vague symptoms, abnormal blood results and repeat attendances. Speakers will discuss when to investigate, when to refer urgently and how to safety-net when the diagnosis is not yet clear.

Discussion points:

• Case studies of subtle cancer presentations
• Abnormal blood results and vague symptoms
• FIT, NICE pathways and urgent referral
• Safety-netting patients who do not meet clear criteria

Diabetes management continues to evolve, with new evidence, updated guidance and an expanding range of treatment options. This session will provide a practical update on the latest developments in diabetes care, focusing on the changes most relevant to everyday general practice.

Learning objectives:

• Review the updates in diabetes management
• Apply current evidence to everyday practice
• Optimise treatment in primary care
• Recognise changes to guidance and clinical practices

Managing perimenopause and menopause often involves more than choosing the right HRT. Increasingly, GPs are supporting women with complex medical histories, navigating requests for newer therapies and making prescribing decisions where the evidence is evolving. Using practical case-based discussions, this session will explore common prescribing dilemmas, where newer treatments fit into practice and how to individualise care for women with different risk profiles.

Learning objectives:

• Individualise treatment for women with different risk profiles 
• Understand where fezolinetant and testosterone fit into practice 
• Manage complex prescribing scenarios using current evidence 
• Respond confidently to requests for newer and privately initiated treatments

Unexpected blood test abnormalities are one of the most common causes of diagnostic uncertainty in primary care. Using practical case studies, this session will focus on the abnormal results GPs encounter most often, helping delegates decide which require urgent action, which should be repeated and when further investigation or referral is appropriate.

Learning objectives:

• Recognise abnormal blood results that require urgent action 
• Decide when repeat testing is appropriate and when further investigation is needed 
• Interpret common abnormal blood test patterns seen in primary care 
• Know when specialist referral is indicated

Running a profitable practice: protecting income, controlling costs and making every resource count

Financial sustainability has become one of the biggest challenges facing GP practices. With costs continuing to rise and demand showing no sign of slowing, practices need to make every resource count. This session will explore practical ways to strengthen financial performance, make better-informed business decisions and invest where it will have the greatest impact—without compromising patient care.

Learning objectives

• Understand where practices lose income, time and capacity 
• Make better use of workforce and existing resources 
• Use data to make informed operational and financial decisions 
• Invest where it delivers the greatest benefit for patients and the practice

Recognising suspicious lesions, choosing the right treatment and knowing when to refer remain some of the biggest challenges in primary care dermatology. This session will provide practical updates on diagnosis, prescribing and referral for the skin conditions GPs encounter every day.

Learning objectives:

• Recognise suspicious skin lesions
• Review prescribing updates in inflammatory skin disease. Including eczema and psoriasis
• Optimise dermatology prescribing in primary care
• Know when specialist referral is indicated

Raised LFTs, fatty liver on ultrasound and metabolic risk factors are increasingly part of the same consultation. This session will provide a practical update on MASLD and MASH, including fibrosis risk assessment, when to use non-invasive tests and which patients need hepatology referral.

Learning objectives:

• Identify patients at risk of MASLD/MASH
• Interpret raised LFTs and fatty liver findings
• Use fibrosis assessment appropriately
• Know when hepatology referral is indicated 

Lower urinary tract symptoms can present a diagnostic and management challenge, particularly when symptoms overlap, PSA results are borderline or cancer needs to be excluded. This session will provide a practical update on assessment, medical management and referral, including current prostate cancer pathways and the role of PSA testing in primary care.

Learning objectives:

• Assess lower urinary tract symptoms
• Use PSA appropriately in primary care
• Optimise medical management
• Know when referral is indicated

GP practices have access to more information than ever before, but the real value lies in knowing how to turn it into better decisions. Discover how leading practices are using data to understand demand, improve operational performance and identify opportunities to deliver better care while making the best use of available resources.

Learning objectives:

• Identify the data that matters most to your practice 
• Use data to understand demand, capacity and patient access 
• Turn insights into practical operational improvements 
• Develop meaningful measures to support better business decisions 

Patients presenting with suspected allergy can be difficult to assess in primary care. This session will provide a practical approach to assessing suspected allergy, selecting appropriate investigations and making confident referral decisions.

Learning objectives:

• Assess suspected allergy
• Choose the right investigations
• Distinguish allergy from intolerance
• Know when referral is indicated

Heart failure management has changed significantly in recent years, with new evidence, evolving treatment pathways and medicines that are transforming outcomes for patients. This session will provide a practical update on recognising heart failure in primary care, optimising treatment using current evidence and understanding the GP's role in the ongoing management of patients with heart failure, plus the rationale for a holistic CVD-Kidney-Metabolic Disease (CVKD) approach to patient care.

Learning objectives:

• Recognise the key changes in heart failure management relevant to primary care
•  Develop skills to improve early diagnosis, and that this is both possible, and essential, for best patient outcomes
• Optimise treatment using a 4-pillar and 2-pillar approach
• Manage patients with a CVKM disease (cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic) approach
• Recognise when specialist review or treatment escalation is required

Musculoskeletal presentations can be difficult to assess when symptoms are non-specific, inflammatory disease develops gradually and access to specialist assessment is delayed. This session will focus on recognising the patients who need further investigation, selecting appropriate first-line investigations and making confident management and referral decisions.

Learning objectives:

• Recognise inflammatory musculoskeletal disease
• Select appropriate first-line investigations
• Distinguish mechanical from inflammatory presentations
• Know when specialist referral is indicated

Growing a practice isn't about working harder. It's about working differently. Hear how one GP practice rethought the way it operates, reduced unnecessary GP administration, made better use of the wider practice team and created the capacity to grow while improving patient access and staff satisfaction.

Learning objectives:

• Reduce GP workload by redesigning roles and responsibilities 
• Make better use of the wider practice team 
• Improve access through practical operational changes 
• Apply proven ideas within your own practice

With hundreds of digital solutions on the market, identifying technology that genuinely improves efficiency can be difficult. In this practical session, a GP will share how technology has helped solve real operational challenges, improve workflows and reduce administrative burden. Discover what worked, what didn't and the lessons learned from implementing technology in a busy practice.

Learning objectives

• Identify technologies that are making a measurable difference in general practice 
• Learn how digital tools can reduce administrative workload and improve efficiency 
• Understand the practical challenges of implementing new technology and how to overcome them 
• Take away practical ideas to improve workflows and productivity within your own practice

Persistent GI symptoms can be difficult to assess when presentations are non-specific, investigations are borderline and referral thresholds vary. This session will provide a practical update on FIT testing, faecal calprotectin and GI referral pathways, with a focus on safe decision-making, cancer detection and safety-netting.

Learning objectives:

• Use FIT in symptomatic patients
• Interpret calprotectin results
• Recognise higher-risk GI presentations
• Make safe referral and safety-netting decisions

Frailty, multi morbidity and increasing involvement from multiple specialties mean GPs are often the only clinicians with a complete view of the patient. As medicines accumulate over time, balancing guideline-based treatment with quality of life, treatment burden and patient priorities becomes increasingly complex. Through practical case-based discussion, this panel will explore how to identify inappropriate polypharmacy, make confident deprescribing decisions and take a holistic approach to medicines optimisation in frail patients.

Discussion points:

• Identifying frail patients who would benefit from a structured medication review
• Recognising when the risks of treatment outweigh the benefits
• Balancing disease-specific guidelines with quality of life and patient priorities
• Working with patients, families and secondary care to support safe deprescribing

Assessing fracture risk, interpreting DEXA results and deciding when to start treatment are increasingly part of primary care. This session will provide a practical update on osteoporosis assessment, treatment selection and long-term management, including the role of FRAX, current treatment options and monitoring in everyday practice.

Learning objectives:

• Assess fracture risk in primary care
• Interpret DEXA results and FRAX scores
• Select appropriate osteoporosis treatment
• Manage long-term therapy safely

Neighbourhood working is beginning to take shape across the NHS, but what does it mean for GP practices and PCNs? This panel will bring together speakers who are already putting neighbourhood working into practice to share what's changed over the past year, what's proving successful and where challenges remain. Through case studies and discussion, you'll hear how different neighbourhoods are working with local partners to improve care, along with the lessons others can take back to their own practices.

Discussion points

• What neighbourhood working means for GP practices and PCNs in practice 
• Lessons learned from early implementation sites—the successes, challenges and common pitfalls 
• Building effective partnerships across primary care, community services, local authorities, education and the voluntary sector 
• Real-world case studies demonstrating how neighbourhood working is improving patient care, tackling local health challenges and strengthening collaboration across the community 
• The leadership, relationships and practical changes needed to make neighbourhood working successful

Children with fever, respiratory symptoms or non-specific illness can deteriorate quickly, and the decision to reassure, review or refer is not always straightforward. This session will focus on recognising red flags, identifying children at risk of serious illness and making safe referral and safety-netting decisions in primary care.

Learning objectives:

• Recognise signs of serious illness
• Assess fever and respiratory symptoms
• Identify children who need urgent referral
• Safety-net confidently with parents and carers

As more end-of-life care is delivered in the community, GPs are increasingly responsible for coordinating care, supporting care homes and making complex decisions for patients with frailty and multiple long-term conditions. Knowing when to shift the focus of care, avoid unnecessary hospital admission and balance clinical priorities with patient and family wishes is becoming an increasingly important part of general practice. Through practical case-based discussion, this session will explore the real-world challenges of delivering high-quality end-of-life care in today's NHS.

Learning objectives:

• Recognise when changing goals of care should influence clinical decision-making
• Navigate complex end-of-life decisions using practical case-based discussions
• Use anticipatory prescribing and community palliative care services effectively
• Coordinate care across primary care, community teams and care homes to support patient’s preferences

Headache, dizziness, blackouts and sensory symptoms can be difficult to assess when presentations are non-specific and the diagnosis is uncertain. This session will provide a practical approach to assessment, initial management and investigation, helping GPs make confident decisions about treatment, safety-netting and referral while patients await specialist review.

Learning objectives:

• Assess neurological presentations
• Select appropriate investigations
• Manage patients safely in primary care
• Know when specialist referral is needed

The decisions practices make today will shape how well they cope with the challenges ahead. Drawing on first-hand experience, this session will look at where successful practices are investing, what they are changing and what they are leaving behind as general practice continues to evolve.

Learning objectives

• Identify the strategic priorities shaping the future of general practice 
• Make confident decisions about investment, innovation and practice development 
• Strengthen governance and leadership to support long-term success 
• Build a resilient practice that is ready for 2027 and beyond

When respiratory symptoms persist despite treatment, knowing what to investigate next isn’t always straightforward. This session will provide practical updates on respiratory management, recognising serious respiratory disease and making confident investigation and referral decisions.

Learning objectives:

• Review updates in asthma and COPD management
• Recognise red flags in persistent respiratory symptoms
• Identify patients requiring further investigation
• Recognise when specialist referral is indicated

Growing numbers of children and adults are presenting to primary care requesting assessment for ADHD, making these consultations increasingly common and often complex. This session will explore a practical approach to recognising possible ADHD, deciding when referral is appropriate, supporting patients during long waits and managing requests following private assessment. It will also examine the GP's role before diagnosis, during treatment and as part of ongoing shared care.

Learning objectives:

• Recognise when ADHD assessment should be considered and when alternative explanations should be explored 
• Navigate referral pathways and assessment criteria 
• Support patients and families while awaiting specialist assessment 
• Manage requests following private assessment and ongoing shared-care arrangements

Memory concerns are becoming an increasingly common reason for consultations in primary care, but distinguishing normal ageing, mild cognitive impairment, dementia and reversible causes is not always straightforward. This session will provide a practical approach to assessment, initial investigations, referral pathways and supporting patients and families while awaiting specialist assessment

Learning objectives:

• Assess patients presenting with memory concerns
• Investigate reversible causes of cognitive impairment
• Recognise when specialist referral is indicated
• Support patients and families during assessment