Talking General Practice

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...

Robyn Clark is a managing partner in a practice in Gloucestershire and a founder and director of the Institute of General Practice Management. On this episode of Talking General Practice she talks to Emma about the challenges facing practice managers in the current climate, what needs to be done to cut bureaucracy in general practice – including how the QOF needs to change – and what practice mana...

In this week’s podcast the team discusses GP funding after analysis by the Liberal Democrats showed a real-terms fall in practice funding during the past four years. Meanwhile, government figures have also shown that the share of NHS funding going to primary care has fallen to an eight-year low. They also talk about problems at the primary care interface - the interface between practices and other...

Talking General Practice speaks to former BMA chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul about the extent of the problem of racism in the medical profession and what we can do to address this. Dr Nagpaul is a London GP, a former chair of the BMA GP committee, and in 2017 he became the first person from an ethnic minority to chair the British Medical Association - a post he held until 2022. While he was chair the BMA...

In our regular news review Emma and Nick discuss a practice in Surrey that is set to make three salaried GPs redundant, and what this tells us about changes in primary care They also talk about the GP workforce, in particular the falling number of GP partners and the impact this might have, and NHS England’s decision to scrap two key GP retention schemes. Our good news story this week highlights t...

Happy new year! This week Emma is talking to GP partner Dr Tommy Perkins and specialist medical accountant Andy Pow from Medics Money, about the financial year ahead for general practice. Tommy and Andy talk about the current financial pressures GP practices are under, how GP partner income has changed, and the sort of uplift practices might need from this year’s GP contract to help address the sh...

This week we’re bringing you some highlights from our top interviews of 2023 - and we’ve had some really fantastic guests this year. In this episode you’ll hear from BMA GP committee for England chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, Royal College of GPs chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne, NHS England director for health inequalities Professor Bola Owolabi, RCGP Wales chair Dr Rowena Christmas and all-roun...

This week Emma and Nick look at what happens next for the quality and outcomes framework after the government launched its consultation on the future of incentive payments in general practice. They talk about what the consultation is asking and whether this could mean the end of the QOF? And they discuss an ageing GP workforce and what it means for the stability of GP practices in some parts...

This week Emma speaks to Dr Sylvia Kama-Kieghe, a GP from Sheffield who is vice chair of the RCGP South Yorkshire and North Trent Faculty and a chair of the RCGP Northern Faculties International Medical Graduate steering group. They talk about the challenges that international medical graduates - or IMG - GPs face and what the NHS and general practice can do to support them. Around half of the doc...

This week Emma and Nick look at what we know about what the BMA in England might be looking to achieve in contract negotiations, how the current deal that’s on the table for consultants could affect talks, and whether continuity should be a contractual requirement. They also discuss Labour’s plan for neighbourhood health centres and what the party might want them to achieve. Our good news story th...

Emma talks to GPs Dr Beckie Akroyd and Dr Catherine Bell about neurodiversity in the medical profession and what general practice can do to better support doctors and other staff who are neurodivergent. Beckie is the GP Lead for Autistic Doctors International, a support and advocacy organisation, and until recently Catherine was an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Fellow for Derbyshire’s GP Task...

Emma and Nick look at the current state of the GP workforce and changes over the past year. We’ve just undertaken a major update of GPonline’s GP Workforce Tracker, which we launched a year ago, and Nick talks through some of the key findings from that work. They talk about the uplift to the minimum wage that is due to happen in April and what this will mean for practice, and discuss GP premises,...

Emma speaks to Dr Sarah Taylor and Dr Rebecca Leon, who are GPs with a special interest in cancer, about early cancer diagnosis. Both Sarah and Rebecca have portfolio careers and one of their roles is as GP leads at GatewayC, an organisation backed by the NHS in England and Wales and leading cancer charities that is aiming to boost early cancer diagnosis. As part of this work they host the GPs Tal...

This week on the podcast Emma and Nick talk about physician associates after the BMA GP committee in England voted in favour of a strongly worded motion that called for an immediate freeze on recruiting these roles in general practice. They also look at plans for regulating PAs by the GMC, which is also causing concern in the medical profession. They also discuss the RCGP’s new definition of what...

Emma speaks to Surrey GPs Dr Gillian Orrow, Dr Tabassum Siddiqui and Dr Richard Wright, about how a programme called Growing Health Together, which Gillian co-founded, is helping general practice and other partners in the local health system to tackle health inequalities. One of the key aims of Growing Health Together is to create a more sustainable health and care system, by reducing demand in pr...

Emma and Nick reflect on last week’s RCGP annual conference, in particular the details of the college’s manifesto to save general practice and the Labour party’s reaction to it. They look ahead to what might happen to the GP contract in England as we come towards the end of the current five-year deal, as well as discuss pay rises for practice nurses and the collapse of contract talks in Wales. And...

Talking General Practice speaks to RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne ahead of the college’s annual conference in Glasgow this week. In this conversation Professor Hawthorne explains what needs to be done to help tackle spiralling workload in general practice, how we can retain more GPs in the workforce and what changes could happen in the short term to help turn the current situation in genera...

Emma and Nick look at the New to Partnership Scheme – a three-year initiative that aimed to boost the number of partners in England – and ask, has it actually worked? They discuss what’s going on with funding for general practice across the UK and what the uplifts agreed for 2023/24 mean for practices. And they talk about the latest appointment data for general practice in England and what it tell...

Emma speaks to London GP and co-chair of Greener Practice, a UK primary care network focused on sustainability, Dr Tamsin Ellis. Along with her Greener Practice role, Tamsin is also a GP associate at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, an organisation that develops knowledge and resources to help the NHS and other health systems to reach net zero. In this conversation Tamsin discusses some prac...

This week Emma and Nick look at some interesting tenders for GP contracts that have been put out for integrated care boards and what they might tell us about the possible direction of travel for general practice and how GP services could be commissioned in future. They discuss physician associates and what role they have to play in the NHS after the BMA published a position statement saying i...

This week Emma speaks to Dr Ben Allen, a GP partner at Birley Health Centre in Sheffield. Over the past few years Ben has invested huge amounts of time and effort to make his practice a better place to work. He’s found that by focusing on staff and improving the organisational culture, the practice has seen huge improvements across the board. Along with having a happier workforce with improved mor...

In our news review Nick and Emma discuss GP pay and what’s behind recent headlines in the national press about so-called huge rises in GP income. They also look at how the growing NHS waiting list and long waits for treatment are affecting patients and driving up workload in general practice, and discuss results from our recent survey which suggest that practices are becoming increasingly reliant...