Talking General Practice

GPonline’s senior reporter Luke Haynes speaks to Dr Farzana Hussain a GP and primary care network clinical director in Newham, east London. Dr Hussain recently announced she is stepping down from her role as clinical director at the end of March. She has been a big advocate for the PCNs since they were introduced in 2019, but issues such as top-down management, endless meetings, and restrictive re...

The team takes a closer look at the GP workforce and which parts of England are most under-doctored. They also look at how primary care networks are faring with recruitment of new staff and why being a clinical director is an increasingly tough job. And they highlight reaction to the government’s plan for how England will ‘live with COVID’ as well as some updates to the COVID-19 vaccination progra...

This week Talking General Practice speaks to Professor Dame Clare Gerada, president of the Royal College of GPs and medical director of NHS Practitioner Health, the NHS service that looks after doctors and other staff experiencing mental ill health. Dame Clare explains how she came to set up NHS Practitioner Health, the impact the pandemic has had on GPs’ mental health and what should be done to b...

This week the GPonline team looks at the government’s plan to tackle the backlog of care in the NHS and what it all means for general practice. They’re also discussing reports that health secretary Sajid Javid has recommended to Boris Johnson that family doctors should be directly employed by hospitals instead of running their own surgeries - a proposal some have said would effectively nationalise...

This week on Talking General Practice, Emma talks to Dr Richard Fieldhouse, a locum GP and chair of the National Association of Sessional GPs, which he set up in 1997 to represent and lobby on behalf of locum and salaried GPs. Richard discusses how the NHS could make better use of the locum GP workforce, how the pandemic has affected locums and how practices can get the best from their locum GPs,...

This week the team discusses results of a recent GPonline survey that found GPs are conducting 84% more patient contacts per day on average than the level considered safe by the BMA, and ask whether there should be a cap on the number of consultations GPs undertake. They also talk about mandatory vaccination for NHS staff and the findings of a report from the CQC that found its own regulatory proc...

This week Talking General Practice speaks to Beccy Baird, senior fellow at health think tank the King’s Fund, about primary care networks. Beccy talks about how networks are getting on, what support they need to succeed, and how the introduction of integrated care systems is likely to affect them. We also look at whether the additional roles reimbursement scheme is the answer to the challenges gen...

Talking General Practice is going weekly! We will now be available every Friday. One week will feature our news round-up and the following week will be an interview with someone from the world of general practice, taking a more in-depth look at a key issue in primary care. This week it’s news. The team looks at the pressure general practice is currently under as a result of the Omicron variant, st...

This week the team looks at plans to ramp up the COVID-19 booster vaccination programme and what this means for GPs and their teams. They also discuss the latest annual GMC State of Medical Education and Practice report and what it tells us about general practice. In our interview Emma speaks to Dr Ellen Fallows, a GP in Oxfordshire and director of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine’s learn...

This week the team discusses the Omicron COVID-19 variant, changes to the vaccination booster programme and how this could impact on practice workload. They also talk about the results of the BMA’s industrial action ballot and what went on at the English LMCs conference last week, including the first address by new GPC England chair Dr Farah Jameel and a wide ranging debate on GP and practice staf...

This week we’re talking about a new inquiry into the future of general practice launched by the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee, with MPs warning that the profession is ‘in crisis’. We also look at the decision to introduce mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for NHS staff in England. And we’ll be discussing the election of a new chair for the BMA’s GP committee in England and looking...

This week the team looks at the fallout from the government’s so-called support package for general practice in England. We discuss the BMA’s plans to ballot GPs on different types of industrial action they could take in protest to the controversial plans that fail to address the current workload crisis and could have the opposite effect of making things significantly worse. We’ll also be looking...

This week we take a look at the government’s so-called support package for general practice. We discuss what’s in the package, what GPs think about it (spoiler - not much) and what happens next. We’re also talking about chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty’s appearance at the RCGP annual conference last week and what he had to say about general practice and the difficult winter ahead. Emma...

In this special episode of our podcast we speak to the chair of the Royal College of GPs Professor Martin Marshall. GPonline editor Emma Bower spoke to Professor Marshall ahead of the RCGP’s annual conference, which takes place in Liverpool this week. Professor Marshall discusses the current media storm around face-to-face appointments, what needs to be done to tackle the workload crisis in genera...

In this episode the team talks about the latest GP appointment data and what it tells us about exactly how hard general practice is working. They ask, is the government starting to recognise the important role general practice plays? And they take a look at new government legislation around pay transparency in general practice. In our interview this week Emma speaks to Dr Rebecca Rosen, a GP in Lo...

This week the team discusses the current furore around face-to-face appointments and how national media campaigns and comments from MPs about access to general practice is affecting GPs and their teams. They also look at the COVID-19 booster campaign and what this means for general practice this autumn. And discuss the additional roles reimbursement scheme – the initiative that is aiming to bring...

This week the team talks about supply problems affecting GP practices - namely delays to flu vaccine deliveries and the NHS-wide blood test tube shortage. They look at what these problems mean for practices and the knock on impact on patients. They also look at the state of the BMA and NHS England’s relationship now that the BMA has agreed to restart formal talks after a five-month break. In our i...

This week the team discusses rising levels of abuse faced by doctors and staff working in general practice and some of the reasons behind this. They also talk about the latest official GP workforce figures, what they tell us about the state of the profession and why the BMA said the statistics were ‘gaslighting’ doctors. In our interview Emma speaks with Dr Carey Lunan, a GP in Edinburgh and chair...

This week the team discusses COVID-19 booster and flu jabs, what the plans will mean for general practice this autumn and why running the campaigns will be a huge challenge for practices. We also look at what the changes to COVID restrictions on 19 July means for primary care, including new rules around self isolation, what’s what with face masks and NHS England withdrawing its standard operating...

This week we discuss the government’s plans to relax almost all of the current COVID-19 restrictions when it moves to step 4 of its roadmap, currently scheduled for 19 July, and find out what the NHS thinks about it.  We also look at what the COVID-19 booster campaign this autumn could mean for general practice and discuss the latest GP trainee recruitment figures. Our interview this week is with...

This week we’re talking about the ongoing fall out from the now infamous NHS England letter about face to face appointments, including the current state of relations between NHS England and the BMA and what health secretary Matt Hancock has to say about it all.  We take a look at the latest problems with Primary Care Support England that has left practices missing payments and caused problems with...

This week we take a look at the government and NHS Digital’s plans for a mass data extraction of all GP patient records in England, highlighting some of the concerns and why it has been put on hold for two months. We also look at the additional roles reimbursement scheme, a major plank of funding in the five-year GP contract that promises extra staff for primary care in England, and ask will it he...

This week we’re talking about face-to-face appointments in primary care and the fallout from NHS England’s standard operating procedure for general practice that demanded practice provide in-person appointments for all patients if they wanted them. We also speak to Dr Sophie Lumley and Dr Adam Thomas, the national co-chairs of the RCGP’s associates in training committee, about GP training in the p...

This week we’re talking about the workload crisis in general practice, looking at the reasons behind it and what could be done to address some of the problems. We also speak to wellbeing expert GP Dr Helen Garr, deputy director of NHS Practitioner Health, about the impact heavy workload and the pandemic has had on GPs’ and other staff members’ mental health. Helen also provides some practical advi...

Brought to you by GPonline.com , this podcast looks at the latest news affecting general practice. Each fortnight the GPonline team highlights key stories - we'll also be talking to GPs and others from primary care about the big issues, highlighting some positive stories and inspirational people along the way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.