What it is: Eye care is attention to the health and comfort of a person’s eyes.

What it is: Eye care is attention to the health and comfort of a person’s eyes.

Assessment and management of symptoms is an important part of GPs palliative care practice and aims to improve or optimise a person’s level of comfort and function.

Respiratory viruses cause illnesses that affect the nose, throat and breathing passages including the lungs. These viruses commonly result in mild cold or flu like symptoms.

When GPs assess patient's needs their existing co-morbidities, intractable symptoms and complicated social and psychological issues can all increase perceived complexity.

The rich blood supply of the eye exposes it to the adverse effects of medicines taken by mouth.

Xerosis (or asteatosis) is the medical term used to describe abnormally dry skin associated with flaking, scaling, redness or itching, which is caused by dehydration of the stratum corneum (the horny cell layer of the epidermis). The condition affects almost every person over the age of 60.

Glaucoma is the name given to a range of conditions that lead to optic nerve damage. The optic nerve transmits signals from the eye to the brain to create the image we see. If a considerable number of nerve fibres are affected, the peripheral field of vision is lost - this loss slowly creeps toward the central vision. Currently, glaucoma cannot be reversed.

The lens in a healthy eye should be clear, allowing the retina to receive a clear, sharp image. A cataract is when the lens becomes cloudy, causing vision impairment. Cataracts are primarily age-related. In fact, almost every person who is 70 or older has some level of cataract formation.

The faecal occult blood test (FOB) checks for small amounts of blood (not visible by eye) in your stool. Normally, there will not be enough blood lost throug