Talking General Practice

This week the team talks about the GP jobs’ crisis after the BMA held a virtual rally last week to help the union shape its plans for how to address the job shortage facing salaried and locum GPs. They also explain the findings from GPonline’s own survey of locum GPs that shows the impact this has had on rates of pay and the finances and wellbeing of those doctors affected. And they discuss GP pre...

This week Emma speaks to GP and researcher Dr Rebecca Payne about what general practice can learn from the research she’s been involved with on remote patient care. In this conversation Rebecca talks about her research into patient safety in remote consultations, what GPs can do to ensure remote consultations are safe and lessons for practices about the systems that they need to have in place. She...

In this week’s episode the GPonline team discusses the future of the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme (TERS) – an initiative to attract GPs to underdoctored parts of England – amid fears it could be scrapped.   They also look at what we know about the current GP contract negotiations in England and what could happen at next month's special LMCs conference, which now looks set to be a...

This week Emma speaks to Ruth Rankine, director of primary care at the NHS Confederation, about how to create a neighbourhood NHS and the role general practice will play. A key plank of the government’s plans is a move towards a neighbourhood NHS with more care provided outside hospital and in the community, but what does this mean in practice? ICBs are already working to set up integrated neighbo...

The government is aiming to create 1,000 new GP jobs through the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS), but are they on track to hit this target before the end of March? Nick and Emma discuss what we know about how the scheme is going. They also talk about a report from the Nuffield Trust, which shows how the ARRS more widely has changed the make-up of the workforce in general practice and...

If you do locum GP work complete our annual survey on GP locum rates here - https://surveys.haymarket.com/s3/Locum-rates-survey-2025 - you will be entered into a prize draw to win £250 of John Lewis vouchers. Is the NHS making best use of the locum GP workforce and how is the current crisis in the GP jobs market affecting locum GPs? This week Dr Richard Fieldhouse, chair of the National Associatio...

Just before Christmas the government announced an £889m funding uplift for the GP contract in 2025/26 - Nick and Emma discuss whether that funding is enough to stabilise practices and what the government will be asking for in the next contract. They also talk about the government and NHS England’s elective reform plan, which was unveiled this week and sets out steps to hit the 18-week referral to...

Emma speaks to GP Dr Tommy Perkins and accountant Andy Pow from Medics Money about the year ahead for general practice finance and how practices can ensure their business is in good shape. Medics Money has a website, podcast and a number of courses that provide doctors with education and support on all things to do with money, including personal finance and practice finance. Tommy is a GP partner...

This week Emma speaks to chief executive of the National Academy for Social Prescribing Charlotte Osborn Forde and Dr Radha Modgil, a GP and TV and radio broadcaster, who is also an ambassador for the National Academy for Social Prescribing. In this conversation Charlotte and Radha explain some of the evidence to support the use of social prescribing, what works in projects on the ground and the i...

The GPonline team talks about some of the challenges the NHS could face this winter and what all this means for general practice. They also look at how the GP jobs crisis is affecting locum GPs - and discuss some worrying signs that the lack of detail on any support practices are likely to receive on employer’s national insurance is having a devastating impact on some practices. And they talk abou...

NHS England has estimated that practices spend around 10-20% of their time on 'lower-value administrative work and work generated by issues at the primary-secondary care interface', so what can we do to address this? This week Emma speaks to GP Dr Jonathan Griffiths the associate medical director for Primary Care at NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB about work he’s been doing in his area to solve so...

This week Nick and Emma discuss whether GPs are likely to step up collective action after GPs at last week’s England LMCs conference voted in favour of balloting the profession on ‘more significant’ industrial action. GPs at the event also voted to hold a special conference on the impact that the rise in employers' national insurance contributions, and Nick and Emma explain what that might mean an...

This week Emma speaks to Kent GP Dr Gaurav Gupta who is a member of the BMA England GP committee and the committee lead for premises. In this conversation Gaurav talks about the terrible state of GP premises in England, how we’ve reached this point and why the government needs to invest in the primary care estate if it is serious about growing the workforce, improving the NHS and moving more care...

Emma and NIck discuss the fallout from the budget and what the increase in employer’s national insurance contributions will mean for GP practices, including looking at the results from our own survey on this issue. They look ahead to next week’s England local medical committee conference and some of the topics that are up for debate and what they tell us about some of the key concerns facing the p...

This week Emma speaks to GP Dr Becks Fisher who is director of policy and research at the health think tank the Nuffield Trust. Becks has long been an advocate for overhauling GP funding so it better reflects deprivation and she explains why this is so important and how the government could go about doing this. She also explains her views on the government’s plans to move care from hospitals to th...

This week the GPonline team looks at the GP workforce in England after latest figures show it has risen to a five-year high despite an ongoing jobs crisis that has left many GPs struggling to find work. They also discuss what’s happening with the GP additional roles reimbursement scheme jobs and why the RCGP is calling for a complete overhaul of the NHS long-term workforce plan.   And they ta...

Emma speaks to GP Dr Simon Opher, who was elected as the Labour MP for Stroud in Gloucestershire in the general election in July this year. Simon was a GP in his constituency for 30 years before standing for parliament. In this interview he talks about why he wanted to become an MP, what being an MP involves day to day and some of the challenges he’s faced in this new role – including going from b...

In this week’s episode Emma and Nick discuss the GP contract in England, where it could go next and what the BMA, the government and NHS England might all be hoping to achieve. And they talk about what could happen to the GP jobs that have been added to the additional roles reimbursement scheme in future. They also explain the RCGP’s decision to say there is no role for physician associates in gen...

Emma speaks to GP Dr Rik Fijten and consultant hepatologist Dr Kosh Agarwal about the NHS in England’s drive to eliminate hepatitis C. The World Health Organization is aiming to eliminate Hepatitis C globally by 2030 and NHS England wants England to become the first country to do this, with a target to achieve this aim by next year. In this podcast Rik and Kosh explains how the NHS is doing agains...

GPonline is the media partner for the RCGP annual conference and this is our third and final special episode from the event. In this episode we look at what health and social care secretary Wes Streeting had to say in his speech to the conference this morning, when he pledged to cut bureaucracy in general practice, called on the profession to step back from collective action and took questions fro...

GPonline is the media partner for the RCGP annual conference and this is the second of three special episodes from the event in Liverpool this week. In this episode Emma speaks to Dr Victoria Tzortziou Brown, the RCGP’s vice chair for external affairs and Dr Micahel Mullholland, the college’s honorary secretary about what went on at the conference this morning, in particular what RCGP chair Profes...

In the first of three daily episodes we’re producing from the RCGP annual conference Emma speaks to college chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne. Kamila talks about the RCGP council’s recent vote to oppose a role for physician associates in general practice, why funding for general practice needs to change to better reflect deprivation and the current challenges new GPs are facing finding work. She al...

GPonline editor Emma Bower and deputy editor Nick Bostock discuss the review of the NHS by Lord Ara Darzi, the government’s response to the report and what happens next - including what might be in the new NHS long-term plan. They also look at another report Lord Darzi was involved with - the IPPR think tank’s final report from its Commission on Health and Prosperity and what that could mean for g...

Emma speaks to Alex Matheson from the LGBT Foundation about the charity’s Pride in Practice programme, which helps GP practices improve the experiences of LGBTQ+ people accessing primary care services. In this conversation Alex talks about the health inequalities experienced by LGBTQ+ people, in particular around access to services and the discrimination some people experience, and how that ultima...

Please note: In this episode, we mention that the RCGP allows four attempts at GP exams - but in fact the college allows five in exceptional cases. The GPonline team looks at how much GPs are earning after figures for 2022/23 were published, as well as the uplift to this year’s GP contract and what that could mean for GP partner pay. They also discuss a report from the Tony Blair Institute - a thi...