Talking General Practice

This week Emma speaks to GP Dr Emma Watts, a dispensing doctor based in Surrey and the chair of the RCGP's Rural Forum, about the distinct challenges facing rural general practice.   Emma discusses how urban-centric policies, mounting financial constraints, and operational pressures are driving rural practice closures. She also highlights hidden health inequalities in rural areas, such as hom...

This week Nick and Emma talk about list cleaning, after an analysis by Nick showed that 350,000 patients have been removed from GP practice lists, resulting in a loss of around £45m from practice funding. Nick explains why this happens and the impact it has on individual practices. They discuss GP contracts, looking at the first area in England that has agreed a local variation to PCN contracts, B...

GP Money Matters is a series of special bonus episodes of Talking General Practice sponsored by Wesleyan where we look at key personal finance issues that affect GPs. In this episode GPonline editor Emma Bower talks to Wendy Baillie, a chartered financial planner and the retirement lead for the medical division at Wesleyan, about the complexities of the NHS pension scheme and the specific challeng...

Emma speaks to Dr Nada Khan, a GP in Exeter and clinical lecturer in general practice at Exeter University, about her recent study on GP retention. In this conversation, Nada explains how GP workload has become increasingly intense, fragmented, and risk-laden, and she describes the impact of hybrid access models and moral distress on GPs - all of which is causing experienced doctors to cut back on...

Emma and Nick talk about the ongoing dispute between the BMA and the government about this year’s GP contract and what the BMA will be asking GP practices to do from 1 June as it steps up collective action. They discuss a vote at the UK LMCs conference earlier this month, which saw LMC representatives back exploring the radical step of moving towards a hybrid NHS/private model for general practice...

This week Talking General Practice is looking at the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme - or NNHIP. This is the NHS England and government programme to support the development of neighbourhood health with 43 pioneer sites across England leading the way to test how integrated neighbourhood teams and neighbourhood approaches can better support patients. To find out what this look...

The GPonline team talks about collective action, after the BMA GP committee narrowly voted in favour of the move, what that action involves and what needs to happen to resolve the dispute. They look at the practice-level reimbursement scheme for GPs, how that is going to work and some of the issues and challenges the scheme could present. And they discuss some late changes to the network contract...

Emma speaks to Dr John Ribchester, a GP partner at Whitstable Medical Practice in Kent, a practice that is frequently cited as a leading example of the ‘neighbourhood NHS’ in action. The practice has spent years shifting services like diagnostics, day surgery, and urgent care out of hospital and into the community. John explains the journey his practice took to develop this model, including the fi...

In our regular news review, the GPonline team talks about advice and guidance after NHS England was forced to clarify that there was no national target for diverting GP referrals.  They also look at some new guidance from the BMA on advice and guidance and whether GPs have been involved locally with the development of controversial single point of access systems that NHS England say will over...

Emma speaks to Professor Greg Irving, an academic GP and the national specialty lead for general practice at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In this conversation, Greg discusses the essential role of research in general practice and how it is being embedded into the government’s 10-year plan as the NHS shifts focus from hospitals to the community.  He explains the...

This week Nick and Emma discuss GP retention and look at the reasons why experienced doctors are leaving the role and what the NHS needs to do to ensure more GPs remain in the job for longer. They talk about how the expanded use of online consultations has impacted on GP workload and fears about what this year’s GP contract – which introduces new same-day access targets and changes to GP referrals...

Emma talks to Dr Liz Dapré, an academic GP and co-chair of the group GPs Championing Perinatal Care (GPCPC) about the vital role of primary care in maternal and perinatal health. In this conversation Liz and Emma discuss the key problems in perinatal care across the NHS and what needs to happen to address some of these issues. Liz explains how GPCPC is working to ensure the voice of general practi...

Emma and Nick discuss the results of the BMA referendum on the GP contract and what happens next, including whether GPs will take action and what health and social care secretary Wes Streeting has said about this. They talk about this year’s GP contract deal after the DDRB recommended a 3.5% pay increase for GPs and practice staff and updated contract guidance for PCNs was published - highlighting...

This week Emma speaks to the RCGP’s registrar co-chairs, Dr Tom France and Dr Molly Dineen about the issues currently facing GP registrars across the UK. Tom and Molly talk about the ongoing GP jobs crisis and the intense frustration surrounding underemployment and unemployment at the end of training. They explain their concerns about the GP jobs available under the additional roles reimbursement...

This week Emma, Nick and Kimberley talk about the government’s plans for neighbourhoods - after the long-awaited neighbourhood health framework was published this week - and what it all means for general practice. They also look in more detail at how GP contract changes to advice and guidance link into this and whether these changes could impede GPs’ right to refer, what they could mean for worklo...

This week Emma speaks to the co-chairs of the BMA sessional GP committee Dr Amy Small and Dr Kim Rollinson about the jobs crisis and how they hope to better represent sessional GPs. In this conversation they discuss how the shortage of jobs is affecting locum and salaried GPs across the country and what needs to be done to address this issue. They explain what salaried GPs should look out for when...

BMA England GP committee chair Dr Katie Bramall speaks to Emma about the 2026/27 GP contract and the BMA’s referendum on the deal, which launched this week. Katie explains why she thinks the 2026/27 contract is a bad deal for general practice and some of the problems around same-day access, advice and guidance and practice funding. She talks about what happens if GPs reject the deal in the referen...

Nick and Emma explain how the GP contract for 2026/27 in England is set to change, how it will impact on practices and what it means for the current dispute between the BMA and the government. In this episode they talk about what the contract changes mean for practice and PCN finances, and whether the funding increase will make a difference, or boost jobs available for GPs. They also look at a new...

The GPonline team discusses the latest news affecting general practice. This week Emma and Nick look at how the GP workforce is changing across England and which areas are moving quickest towards what’s considered a safe GP patient ratio. They also discuss what we know and don’t know about this year’s GP contract, rounding up a number of stories GPonline has published recently that cover issues in...

Emma speaks to Professor Bola Owolabi, a practising GP in the Midlands and the chief inspector of primary care and community services at the CQC. Before this she director of the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England, where she led the Core20PLUS5 approach to tackling healthcare inequalities. Bola took on her role at the CQC in July last year at a particularly t...

Nick and Emma discuss how the BMA plans to respond when details of the 2026/27 GP contract are published, which are expected at some point this month, confusion about the time frame for neighbourhoods and how plans to ramp up advice and guidance could bring even more work to general practice in the coming year. They also look at a couple of stories GPonline has published over the past week or so t...

Emma talks to Robert McCartney, a senior associate in the corporate commercial team at the law firm Hempsons to discuss the shift toward a neighborhood NHS and what this means for the future of general practice. In this conversation, Robert outlines the potential impact new single and multi-neighborhood provider contracts could have and discusses the growing trend of PCNs incorporating as limited...

This week Emma and Nick discuss a significant fall in the number of young GP partners, the reasons behind this and what the long term impact of this workforce shift might be. They look at the exodus of UK-trained international medical graduate doctors to other countries and talk about why this group has been particularly hard hit by the GP jobs crisis. They also highlight the impact new legislatio...

Emma speaks to Patrick Denston about how GP practices can make the best use of new tech and what the next five years could hold. Patrick is a PCN digital transformation and change manager and a practice business manager based in Farnborough, Hampshire, as well as an NHS England AI peer ambassador. He has a proven track record of successfully introducing new technology into general practice. In thi...

Emma and Nick talk about some key news stories from the end of December and the start of this year linked to issues where we are expecting some major developments in the early part of 2026. They talk about the 2026/27 GP contract, what the BMA and RCGP have said the contract needs to address, as well as some of their own predictions about what could happen. They look at what comes next with neighb...