Talking General Practice

This week the GPonline team discusses the BMA’s vision for how to rebuild general practice in England, what both the BMA and the RCGP want from the new government and how the BMA’s ballot on collective action – which closes on Monday – plays into all of this. They also talk about what happens next for physician associates in general practice after a new poll shows public confusion of the role and...

Dr Emma Ryan, a GP in South East London and the Royal College of GPs clinical champion for gambling harms, explains the role general practice can play in tackling problem gambling and gambling harms. In this conversation Emma talks about the impact problem gambling can have on individuals and their families, recommendations from NICE’s new guidance on gambling harms and why GPs should ask patients...

This week Emma talks to Tim Gardner, assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation think tank, about what a new Labour government could mean for general practice and the rest of the NHS. They discuss Labour’s plans to shift a greater share of NHS funding to primary care and what that could mean for general practice, what the government needs to do to bring down the NHS waiting list, and wh...

The podcast is out a bit early this week because of the election. In this week’s episode Emma and Nick discuss the BMA ballot on collective action, and look at the case of a practice in Cambridge that has handed back its contract despite having high patient satisfaction scores to explain why funding for general practice is now a critical issue. Nick also explains what action practices could take i...

Emma speaks to Labour’s shadow health and social care secretary Wes Streeting about the party’s plans for general practice if it wins next week’s general election.   Mr Streeting discusses what Labour would do to address the GP jobs crisis – which has seen thousands of GPs struggling to find work – and why Labour believes general practice should receive a greater share of the NHS budget. &nbs...

Emma speaks to Nottinghamshire GP Dr Carter Singh from the Rebuild General Practice campaign about what the campaign is hoping to achieve, what it is doing during the general election, and how it hopes to influence the new government. Carter also explains the key issues that he thinks the new government needs to address, the importance of investing in more GPs and his views on the BMA ballot on co...

The GPonline team looks at the GP employment crisis and concerns about what job opportunities await the many GP registrars due to qualify this summer. They highlight the latest news from the general election, discussing the BMA’s manifesto and what the political parties have been saying about general practice in their manifestos. And the talk about GMC regulation of physician associates after the...

Emma speaks to GP Dr Farnaaz Sharief who is also the chief executive of Manage your Mind which works with NHS and social care staff to help develop mental resilience. Farnaaz talks about mental wellbeing in the NHS, what mental resilience means and why it is so important. She also has lots of practical advice on how people can boost their mental resilience to help them cope with stress and pressur...

The GPonline team discusses the BMA ballot on collective action, which launches in June and what the general election could mean for that and general practice more widely. They talk about the Royal College of GPs call for an overhaul of GP funding so that it better addresses health inequalities and a wider report the college has produced on how to reverse the inverse care law. And they round up wh...

This week Emma talks to Tara Humphrey, founder and CEO of THC Primary Care, which provides management support and training to primary care networks across England. Tara is also the host of the Business of Healthcare podcast. Tara explains what makes a successful network, some of the challenges networks have to overcome and the positive side of the additional roles reimbursement scheme. She also ta...

In our regular news review the GPonline team looks at NHS England's plans to pilot new ways of working in general practice in a bid to ‘optimise the general practice operating model’ - and what this could all mean for the future. They also discuss what the BMA has suggested should be included in the next major overhaul of the GP contract. They look ahead to next week’s UK conference of local medic...

Earlier this year the Royal College of GPs published a statement setting out a number of steps it said needed to be taken to ensure general practice was treated on a par with other branches of medicine. The college argued that a failure to recognise general practice’s role as the cornerstone of the NHS was driving underfunding and perpetuating the GP crisis. This week Emma talks to the college’s v...

In our regular news review the GPonline team looks at what’s happened to the GP workforce over the course of the five year contract, in particular the number of GP partners. They also talk about the cost to the NHS of not retaining doctors following some BMA research and the government’s view of the workforce crisis. They discuss the issue of drug shortages and how it is affecting GPs and patients...

Emma speaks to Jake Beech, a policy fellow from the think tank the Health Foundation, about why we need to change the way we think about access in general practice. Jake is involved with a research project that’s a partnership between the Health Foundation and THIS Institute looking at what access in general practice means. The project is developing a ‘candidacy framework’ that provides a series o...

This week the GPonline team talks about how untapped capacity among GP locums could help deliver hundreds of thousands of extra GP appointments every week, and what this all means in light of the current challenges sessional GPs are facing finding work. They also discuss NHS England’s evidence to the Doctors and Dentists Review Body, which is due to make recommendations on whether GP funding shoul...

Emma speaks to Jacob Lant, the chief executive of National Voices, a coalition of more than 200 health and social care charities in England about what patients want from general practice and the NHS more widely.. In this conversation Jacob talks about why patient satisfaction has reached an all time low and what needs to happen to improve things. He also explains how he would like to see the GP co...

This week Nick and Emma explain the results of the BMA’s referendum on the GP contract for England in 2024/25 and what happens next. And they talk about whether GPs will be prepared to take industrial action this year – and the types of action they might back – based on results from our own polling. They also discuss whether general practice in England is shifting to a GP-lite model, as many GPs s...

This week Emma talks to GP Dr Lucy Henshall and healthcare consultant and former practice manager Penny Flack about their initiative Welcome Back to Work, which helps support GPs back into the workplace if they’ve had less than two years away. In this conversation they explain how Welcome Back to Work helps GPs, the importance of tailoring support to individual doctors, and why we need a much more...

Emma and Nick discuss the debate that’s raging about the use of physician associates in the NHS after the BMA issued new guidance on the tasks PAs should and shouldn’t be doing and the RCGP updated its red lines on the use of PAs in general practice. They also talk again about the struggles GPs are facing finding work as the financial pressures in general practice continue to bite, as well as the...

Emma talks to BMA England GP committee chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer about the impact the GP contract for 2024/25 will have, the BMA’s referendum on the deal and what happens next. GPs in England are facing the third consecutive contract imposition and a deal that will deliver just a 1.9% uplift to funding in 2024/25. The BMA last week launched a referendum on the contract and we’re entering a cr...

This week the GPonline team discusses the GP contract for England for 2024/25.  They look at how the contract deal will affect practice finances, as well as some of the other changes it will bring. They also talk about the human impact of underfunding in general practice, which has seen some unemployed locum GPs being forced to use food banks as well as and practices having to cut back servic...

This week Emma speaks to Beccy Baird, senior fellow at health think tank the King’s Fund. Beccy is the lead author of a report the King’s Fund published in Feburary called Making care closer to home a reality – refocusing the system to primary and community care . The report looks at what needs to happen to ensure a greater share of NHS funding goes to primary care and community services and we bu...

This week the GPonline team looks at the visa challenges facing international medical graduate (IMG) GPs in training and how this could drive them out of the NHS. They also talk about the difficulties locum GPs in England are facing finding work, why this is happening, and how it is affecting rates of pay following a recent survey carried out by GPonline and our sister site GP Business. And they d...

Emma speaks to GP and author Dr Ellen Welch about her latest book Why Can’t I See My GP? which was published this month. The book looks at the current state of general practice, why we have reached this point, and puts forward ideas on what needs to be done to address the problems. Along with her own views the book includes personal accounts from GPs and others about their experiences. In this int...

Last week the BMA rejected a contract offer for practices in England that would deliver a 1.9% uplift in funding. In this episode of Talking General Practice the GPonline team looks at what we know about the deal that’s currently on the table. They discuss what a 1.9% funding uplift would mean for practices, what the BMA, grassroots GPs and Labour think about the deal, and what happens next – incl...