Royal College of General Practitioners - Online Learning Environment

Available until 30 January 2026.

The national learning disability mortality review programme ‘learning from lives and deaths – LeDeR’ has shone a light on the huge health inequalities experienced by this population. This course will cover a variety of topics aiming to help GPs support the health needs and complexity of their patients with a learning disability. 

Learning objectives:

• To develop understanding of the health inequalities revealed by the learning disability mortality review programme LeDeR
• To hear the voice of people with a learning disability and their family carers and the importance of making reasonable adjustments to improve access to care
• To consider how to identify people with a learning disability, and to manage high quality care of that population including by the annual health check
• To support GPs in considering how to implement the Mental Capacity Act when caring for people with a learning disability
• To develop understanding of the multimorbidity experienced by this population and the consequent need for care planning
• To gain a greater understanding of the wider MDT supporting the care of people with a learning disability

Topics include:

• Down syndrome – including the issues need to be covered in a down syndrome annual health check and reference to the Down Syndrome Act 
• Audiology – hearing problems – assessment and management in adults with a learning disability 
• Communication in the GP consultation - inclusive consultations: what works for people with a learning disability 
• Obstructive sleep apnoea and its importance in learning disability 
• Family carer perspective
• Constipation and its importance for morbidity and mortality in adults with a learning disability
• Implementing the Mental Capacity Act and making best interest decisions for adults with a learning disability in primary care 
• Advance care planning/Daffodil standards/Victoria and Stuart project

Available until Thursday 30 October 2025.

This One Day Essentials Cancer care conference is a learning event to inform primary care of knowledge and innovations in improving cancer care – for GPs in their everyday clinical practice. The conference will cover a range of topics including the evidence base for urgent referrals and RDCs, safety netting tips and tools, latest advances in cancer testing/detection (including multi-cancer early detection tests), the evolving role of primary care networks and wider primary care teams. Supporting patients living with and beyond cancer and when to think about cancer recurrence. Finally we will look to the latest hot topics and future of cancer care. The conference will provide GPs with knowledge to impact and improve care of cancer patients in their own practices, as well as inform GPs of changes and innovations that will impact the role of early cancer diagnosis in primary care.

Topics include:

• Use of urgent suspected cancer referrals and in non-specific presentations rapid diagnostic centres (RDC)
• Safety netting tips and tools
• Latest advances in cancer testing and detection including multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests
• Primary Care Networks and wider primary care teams - Improving Early Diagnosis of Cancer
• Supporting patients living with and beyond cancer 
• Latest Cancer Hot Topics for GPs

Learning objectives:

• Up to date on the latest evidence for early cancer detection in primary care
• Current primary care tests and how they can help in cancer risk assessment
• Novel approaches to cancer detection including multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests
• Embedding safety netting in your clinical practice
• Understand non-specific symptom (NSS) presentations and use of rapid diagnostic centres (RDCs)
• Supporting cancer patients once diagnosed and living with and beyond their cancer

Conference Chair:

Dr Thomas Round, General Practitioner and Academic Clinical Research Fellow