Did the Mail describe Pulse as fake news peddlers or rabble-rousers? Who hasn’t threatened to sue us? Did we offer holidays to Florida and Andalucia in the same issue? Find out below...
We warned it was tough! The winner was Dr Rachel Ali, a GP in Devon, who wins the £100 M&S vouchers having got six answers correct!
You can find more history of general practice and Pulse through the pages of our final issue!
1. Who was the first publisher of Pulse?
Hearst
East India Company
Bayer Products
The BMA
Bayer Products started Pulse as a means of advertising their pharma products to GPs in 1960. Confusingly, Bayer Products wasn’t part of Bayer, but a subsidiary of Stirling Drug. You can read more about Pulse’s origins here
2. Which of the following did Pulse NOT interview for the ‘Celebrity Script’ articles on famous people’s experiences with their GPs?
Janet Street-Porter
Paul Daniels
Gerald Kaufman
Julie Burchill
Spike Milligan
What first drew us to interview multimillionaire Paul Daniels? Not a lot, because he was the red herring. We did receive musings from the others on their experiences with their GPs. None of them were as scathing as Chris Morris, however. Enjoy his piece here
3. Which health secretary claimed that when GPs say they are worried about patient care, they are really ‘reaching for their wallets’?
Virginia Bottomley
Ken Clarke
Jeremy Hunt
Matt Hancock
Yes, it was cuddly Ken who managed to be the most insulting Conservative health secretary, which is some feat. Yet he is still more popular among GPs than Matt Hancock
4. Which of these was a real series in Pulse?
The golden age of TV
The golden age of railways
The golden age of spas
The golden age of canals
The golden age of technology
We’re not saying that we had pages to fill in the 1960s and 1970s, but the series on the golden age of spas was an interesting editorial choice
5. Which pseudonym did a former NHS England primary care medical director use on PulseToday that later saw him on the front page of Pulse and then subsequently leaving his role?
TruthTeller
Devil’s Advocate
HeebieGPs
The Judge
This might be one to google to get the full story…
6. What funding uplift did GPs receive in 1966?
10%
20%
30%
40%
The pay award was 30% – in other words, about the same unadjusted for inflation that NHS England has offered in 2024 (probably – we haven’t checked)
7. Which of these shameful headlines did NOT appear in Pulse in the 1980s?
A woman’s place is not in the surgery
Be fair to the fat patient
GP who likes big Bristols
Homosexuals: discretion needed for own safety
Asian GPs lured patients
It’s fair to say the 1980s were not always the most enlightened times
8. Which group has NOT made official complaints about our columnist Copperfield?
Community pharmacists
B12 pressure groups
The RCGP
Physician associates
We should add ‘yet’
9. How were GPs asked to register their passwords for the first ever Pulse website in March 1998?
Through the website itself
Through email
Through a dedicated helpline
Through text message
Through the postal service
Text message and email were barely a thing in those days
10. Which one of these findings from Pulse surveys is false?
10% of GPs intend to vote Labour (2005)
14% of GPs believe homeopathy should be available on the NHS (2012)
19% of GPs believe that abortion should not be legal (2007)
GPs work on average 11 hours per day (2021)
Pre-2000, the surveys were always sent in via post and the response rate was surprisingly high. The financial incentives might have had something to do with that
11. Which of these was NOT a prize in a single issue of Pulse in September 2000?
A five-day holiday in Florida
A day racing a Ferrari at Silverstone
Several £100 M&S vouchers
A Canon camcorder worth £400
A seven-day holiday to Andalucia
Incredibly, all the others were prizes awarded in one single issue, incredibly. The holiday in Florida was part of the Pulse Lucky Numbers competition, while the trip to Andalucia was in the Pulse Travel section.
12. Which of the following has NOT (yet) threatened Pulse with legal action?
Dr Robert Winston
Babylon
Julia Hartley-Brewer
The RCGP
Our lawyers have advised us not to elaborate on this…
13. How did the Mail on Sunday describe Pulse after our 2021 investigation into media coverage of GPs?
Patient-hating GP magazine Pulse
Pitchfork-wielding GP magazine Pulse
Fake-news-peddling GP magazine Pulse
Rabble-rousing GP magazine Pulse
It was rabble-rousing. This became a badge of honour for Pulse, and led to our popularity reaching record levels among GPs
14. Which of these was not a real feature in Pulse?
Pulse wine club
Medical times TV-review column
Improve your golfing technique
Motorist of the year
The TV column was not in Pulse but was, in fact, in one of our rival publications. Pulse was too busy dispelling unfair stereotypes about GPs to be bothering with TV
15. Thérèse Coffey, during her short time as health secretary, said ‘the majority of healthcare is actually delivered through primary care, by our doctors, dentists and who?
Nurses
Pharmacists
Physician associates
Physiotherapists
Chiropractors
Those two weeks of Ms Coffey’s reign were fun while they lasted. When we say fun, we mean hellish
