In this week’s podcast the GPonline team looks in detail at the government’s 10-year health plan and what it means for general practice. They talk about what the plan could mean for the future of the GP contract and the partnership model, the government’s plans for a neighbourhood NHS and what GPs think about the proposals. They also look at how the government plans to shift the NHS from analogue to digital and what this could mean for GPs and their teams. Meanwhile, our good news story this wee...
Jul 11, 2025•38 min•Season 5Ep. 46
Emma speaks to Lizzy Lloyd, chair of AISMA, the Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants, and a partner at the accountancy firm Larking Gowen. The financial pressures on general practice have been a major theme of the past few years, and in this episode, Lizzy discusses the impact this has had on practices. She talks about cash flow problems and the complexities of the GP contract and funding, as well as challenges around workforce and service charge issues. Lizzy offers invalua...
Jul 04, 2025•33 min•Season 5Ep. 45
This week Emma speaks to Dr Lisa Harrod-Rothwell, chief executive of Londonwide LMCs and a GP in Islington, North London. Londonwide LMCs represents local medical committees, GPs and practices in 27 of the capital’s 32 boroughs. In this conversation, Lisa explains exactly what Londonwide LMCs does and some of the key challenges facing general practice in London, including workforce issues, premises problems and health inequalities. She also talks about the London region of the NHS’s vision for a...
Jun 27, 2025•37 min•Season 5Ep. 44
This week Emma and Nick discuss what the spending review had to say about the NHS and look ahead to what we know about the government’s 10 Year Health Plan, which is expected to be published in the coming weeks. In this episode they talk about what that plan could mean for the future of general practice and the NHS in England, how the government might aim to meet its ambitions of creating a neighbourhood NHS and ‘bringing back the family doctor’, and where a new GP contract could fit into all of...
Jun 20, 2025•34 min•Season 5Ep. 43
Emma speaks to Dr Caroline Taylor, chair of the National Association of Primary Care and a GP in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. The NAPC has been at the forefront of developing the neighbourhood approach to health and Caroline is a big advocate for this model. In this conversation, Caroline explains exactly what a neighbourhood is, how general practice should fit into this model and the benefits of this way of working for patients, GPs and practices, including increased job satisfaction. She also t...
Jun 13, 2025•38 min•Season 5Ep. 42
This week the GPonline team talks about the pay rise GPs and other doctors have received this year, what GPs think about this year’s contract deal and the prospect of more strikes from resident doctors. And they look at what’s happening in Northern Ireland after the government imposed the GP contract there. They also discuss the ongoing GP jobs crisis after the BMA raised fears that up to 1,000 GP registrars could find themselves struggling to get a job when they complete GP training this summer...
Jun 06, 2025•31 min•Season 5Ep. 41
The government is expected to publish its 10-year Health Plan in June and neighbourhood health will form a key part of the plan. In an interview with the Telegraph last month health and social care secretary Wes Streeting highlighted a scheme from Brazil, that has been piloted in London, and involves community health and wellbeing workers providing outreach work. Could a model like this be part of neighbourhoods? There have been suggestions from several quarters that the scheme will be included ...
May 30, 2025•31 min•Season 5Ep. 40
This week Emma speaks to Dr Caroline Watson, who is chair of the Royal College of GPs Secure Environments Group and has over a decade of experience working as a GP in prisons in England. Caroline is currently clinical director of Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust Secure Services and works as a GP at HMP Bedford. Caroline explains how she got involved in working in secure environments, what working in these environments entails, and the challenges faced by GPs working in them. She also discus...
May 23, 2025•31 min•Season 5Ep. 39
(Please note in this episode we mistakenly refer to a report on GP partner numbers as being produced by the Health Foundation. It was in fact produced by the Nuffield Trust) This week Emma and Nick discuss falling numbers of GP partners and what this could mean for the future of general practice. They talk about what went on at the UK LMCs conference last week, where the BMA launched a new report highlighting the value of a GP and there were debates on GP unemployment and the employer national i...
May 16, 2025•31 min•Season 5Ep. 38
This week Emma speaks to Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, who is a GP and the national chief medical officer in New Zealand. Helen took on her new role as chief medical officer six months ago, however many UK doctors will know her from her previous roles as chair of the Royal College of GPs, a post she held from between 2016 and 2019 and as chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges during the pandemic from 2020 to 2023. Before her move to New Zealand she was also a GP partner at a pract...
May 09, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 37
The GPonline team discusses the key news stories affecting general practice. This week Emma and Nick look at the new advice and guidance directed enhanced service, which will pay practices for GPs making use of local advice and guidance systems. Nick explains the huge variation of uptake of advice and guidance across England and what this could mean for practices delivering the enhanced service. You can find out about uptake in your local area in our story here https://www.gponline.com/will-gps-...
May 02, 2025•29 min•Season 5Ep. 36
This week Emma speaks to Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, the chair of the BMA England GP committee, about what the future holds for general practice Katie explains why this year’s contract deal is the start of a long journey of recovery for general practice and the basis on which to create a more positive future for the profession. Now that the government has agreed to negotiate a completely new GP contract, Katie explains what her priorities will be in those contract negotiations and how the BMA will...
Apr 25, 2025•37 min•Season 5Ep. 35
The GPonline team discusses the key news stories affecting general practice. This week the team looks at GP recruitment under the additional roles reimbursement scheme and what new figures tell us about how that initiative is working. They also talk about cuts to integrated care boards, what that could mean for general practice and how the financial constraints within the NHS are already impacting on funding for local services provided by GPs. Our good news story is about funding for research in...
Apr 18, 2025•32 min•Season 5Ep. 34
This week Emma speaks to Professor Naomi Allen, chief scientist at UK Biobank, a biomedical database and research resource that contains data, information and biological samples from half a million UK participants. Naomi, who is also a professor of epidemiology at the University of Oxford, explains how UK Biobank was established, how it works, and the wealth of data it holds. Naomi also discusses the crucial role primary care data will play and explains how it will be incorporated into UK Bioban...
Apr 11, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 33
On this week’s podcast Emma and Nick talk about how this year’s GP contract will affect practices’ finances and look at details of the advice and guidance enhanced service after final contract documents were published. Kimberley explains how collective action has helped one LMC secure a significant uplift to local enhanced service funding. And Nick talks through the results of this year’s British Social Attitudes survey, which was widely reported and shows satisfaction with the NHS and general p...
Apr 04, 2025•37 min•Season 5Ep. 32
This week’s episode looks at GPs with extended roles and how they could help move services out of hospitals and into the community, reduce waiting times for patients and boost GP retention. Emma is speaking to Dr Charlie Andrews, a GP partner and a GP with an extended role in gastroenterology. Charlie is the driving force behind a programme in the south west of England that trains GPs with extended roles in gastroenterology. This has been the basis for a new framework for GPs with extended roles...
Mar 28, 2025•33 min•Season 5Ep. 31
This week Emma and Nick talk about the government agreeing to negotiate a completely new GP contract within the term of this parliament and what that could mean for the profession. They also discuss the government’s decision to scrap NHS England and how it could affect general practice. And they look at the future of the GP partnership model after an influential health think tank, the Nuffield Trust, suggested that the government should develop alternative models for general practice. Our good n...
Mar 21, 2025•36 min•Season 5Ep. 30
This week Emma speaks to Dr Iain Morrison, chair of the BMA Scotland GP committee Scotland, about the critical challenges facing general practice in Scotland. In this conversation Iain explains some of the challenges general practice in Scotland is facing as a result of problems with the 2018 GP contract, the impact of underfunding, and the growing crisis in the GP job market. He explains what needs to happen to address these issues and the prospect of GPs in Scotland taking industrial action in...
Mar 14, 2025•37 min•Season 5Ep. 29
This week Emma and Nick look at the GP contract deal for England for 2025/26. They discuss what exactly is in the deal and what it means for GP practices in the year ahead, in particular what it could mean for practice finances and whether changes to the additional roles reimbursement scheme will address the GP jobs crisis. They also talk about what happens now with collective action and the BMA’s push for more significant contract reform in the coming years. This episode was presented by GPonli...
Mar 07, 2025•40 min•Season 5Ep. 28
This week Emma speaks to Dr John Ford and GP Dr Liam Loftus from the Health Equity Evidence Centre at Queen Mary University in London about health inequalities and how frontline clinicians, system leaders and policymakers can make evidence-based decisions to tackle inequality in healthcare. John and Liam discuss how the Health Equity Evidence Centre is making the evidence on what works when it comes to addressing health inequalities more accessible. The centre uses machine learning to analyse th...
Feb 28, 2025•29 min•Season 5Ep. 27
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 premises following a report published last week by the NHS Confederation that suggested NHS Property Se...
Feb 21, 2025•37 min•Season 5Ep. 26
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 also talks about the wider implications of this research including what it means for training and e...
Feb 14, 2025•34 min•Season 5Ep. 25
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 referendum on the deal for 2025/26. Plus, they talk about NHS England's planning guidance for the year ahead an...
Feb 07, 2025•33 min•Season 5Ep. 24
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 neighbourhood teams, but as yet there is no clear definition of what these teams should look like. In this ...
Jan 31, 2025•37 min•Season 5Ep. 23
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 argues that the introduction of new roles to the NHS has not been backed by enough planning and supp...
Jan 24, 2025•33 min•Season 5Ep. 22
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 Association of Sessional GPs (NASGP), speaks to Emma about all things related to locum GPs. Around a third of ...
Jan 17, 2025•37 min•Season 5Ep. 21
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 treatment target by the end of this parliament. The plan includes a number of measures involving GPs...
Jan 10, 2025•33 min•Season 5Ep. 20
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 who set up Medics Money with fellow GP Dr Ed Cantelo and Andy is a specialist medical accountant and...
Jan 03, 2025•41 min•Season 5Ep. 19
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 important role GPs have to play within social prescribing. They also discuss some of the challenges f...
Dec 20, 2024•37 min•Season 5Ep. 18
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 about whether GPs in Wales and Scotland could be following their English counterparts and launching some...
Dec 13, 2024•31 min•Season 5Ep. 17
