In a special news episode of the podcast the team looks at the findings of an independent review of integrated care systems, which was commissioned by the government and led by former Labour health secretary Patricia Hewitt. The final report from the review was published this week and Emma and Nick look at what it had to say about primary care – including some recommendations that could see a major change to GP contracts – and what it could mean for general practice in the future. They also look...
Apr 07, 2023•27 min•Season 3Ep. 29
This week the team looks at whether GPs will be prepared to take industrial action following the imposition of a contract for the second year in a row – and what action the profession could be balloted on taking in the coming months. They discuss the results of the latest annual British Social Attitudes survey, which assesses public satisfaction with the NHS. And, as junior doctors step up pressure on the government to improve their pay by announcing a four-day strike, they talk about what this ...
Mar 31, 2023•26 min•Season 3Ep. 28
Warning: This episode contains discussions about death and suicide In a special episode Emma looks at the issue of assisted dying and asks whether it should be legalised - and if it was, how could it work? Later this year a bill will be introduced to the Scottish parliament that could see assisted dying legalised. In England the House of Commons health and social care committee is running an inquiry on the issue. The Scottish bill is being put forward by Lib Dem member of Scottish parliament Lia...
Mar 24, 2023•54 min•Season 3Ep. 27
This week Emma and Nick are talking about the GP contract changes in England for 2023/24, which have been imposed on practices for the second year in a row after the government and the BMA failed to reach an agreement. They look at what the changes are, the implications for general practice and what could happen next. They also discuss this week’s unprecedented junior doctors’ strike, and speak to doctors who were out on the picket lines, and they look at what this week’s Budget means for doctor...
Mar 17, 2023•35 min•Season 3Ep. 26
Emma speaks to Ben Gowland, director and founder of think tank and consultancy Ockham Healthcare and host of the General Practice Podcast. Ben does a lot of work with primary care networks (PCNs) across England and in this conversation we look at what the future holds for PCNs as we enter the final year of the five-year GP contract that led to their introduction in 2019. Ben explains why he thinks it's so important that practices engage with their PCN and the opportunities he believes PCNs provi...
Mar 10, 2023•29 min•Season 3Ep. 25
This week the team talks about ongoing GP contract negotiations in England for next year and asks whether the contract for 2023/24 could be imposed. They discuss a rise in partnership and PCN disputes and what might be behind this trend as well as the latest on this month’s junior doctor strikes. They also look at the government’s record on the NHS, including how it’s handling the care backlog and discuss GP workforce statistics after they passed a pretty grim milestone last month. Our good news...
Mar 03, 2023•25 min•Season 3Ep. 24
Emma speaks to Dr Rowena Christmas, chair of RCGP Wales and a GP in the Wye Valley on the Welsh/English border. Rowena has been heavily involved in the college’s work over the past couple of years on relationship-based care - or continuity of care - and in this conversation she explains why she feels this is so important and how GPs and practices can embed this in the way that they work. She also talks about recruitment and retention of GPs and what’s happening in Wales, the impact recent NHS pr...
Feb 24, 2023•33 min•Season 3Ep. 23
In our fortnightly news review the team looks at what we know about GP contract negotiations in England for 2023/24 after the BMA rejected NHS England’s ‘insulting’ offer. They discuss an integrated care board’s plans to commission all GP enhanced services via primary care networks and what the wider implications of this could be. And they talk about the findings of the GMC’s latest review on bias in its processes. The good news story for this week is about a community in Cornwall that is going ...
Feb 17, 2023•23 min•Season 3Ep. 22
Emma speaks to NHS England’s director of healthcare inequalities and Midlands GP Professor Bola Owolabi about how to reduce inequity in healthcare. Bola talks about how she became interested in health inequalities, her vision for tackling inequity and she makes the economic argument for why we must address health disparities. Bola also explains NHS England’s CORE20PLUS5 approach to tackling inequalities, how this provides a framework for primary care networks to focus their efforts when it comes...
Feb 10, 2023•34 min•Season 3Ep. 21
GPonline launched its new GP Insight data tool this week and our first project is a GP workforce tracker. On the podcast this week Nick and Emma look at some of the data in the tracker and what this tells us about the GP workforce in different parts of England. They also talk about a recently published study that highlights the impact that poor GP retention has on patients and the wider NHS and discuss the government’s latest plans for the NHS and what’s going on with the current wave of strikes...
Feb 03, 2023•27 min•Season 3Ep. 20
The BMA is currently balloting junior doctor members on whether to take industrial action, which could see them stage a three-day walkout in March. This week Emma speaks to chair of the BMA’s GP trainee committee Dr David Smith about why junior doctors have reached this point. David explains why the BMA is pushing for full pay restoration for junior doctors and the impact that falling levels of pay have had on the profession. He also talks about how the current ballot works and what happens if i...
Jan 27, 2023•22 min•Season 3Ep. 19
Emma and Nick talk about Labour’s plans for the NHS and general practice more specifically, which have not gone down well with a lot of GPs. They also discuss plans to speed up patient discharges from hospitals and what this could mean for general practice as well as the RCGP’s new exam for GP trainees, which could be in place by the end of 2023. Our good news story this week takes a look at the latest data from England’s Friends and Family Test. This episode was presented by GPonline editor Emm...
Jan 20, 2023•27 min•Season 3Ep. 18
Kent GP Dr Chris Newman is one of the co-founders of Doctors for Extinction Rebellion, a group of healthcare professionals that campaigns for action on climate change. As part of his involvement in the group Chris has taken part in direct action and last year was arrested and charged under public order laws following a protest in central London. In this conversation Emma talks to Chris about why he set up Doctors for Extinction Rebellion - which is in the process of changing its name to Health f...
Jan 13, 2023•29 min•Season 3Ep. 17
With the NHS facing unprecedented pressure and horrendous stories emerging about the impact this has had on both patients and staff, we look at what the crisis means for general practice, what representative organisations want the government to do and what steps might need to be taken to help GP practices cope. We also discuss industrial action - in particular the BMA ballot of junior doctors, which gets underway on Monday 9 January - and we look at the latest GP workforce data and some results ...
Jan 06, 2023•26 min•Season 3Ep. 16
This week the team looks at record levels of drug shortages, the latest on group A strep and how it is affecting GPs and their teams and talk about the GP workforce in the most deprived parts of England. They also discuss why many practices are facing a precarious future because of the lack of GP partners and how inflation and the cost of living crisis is affecting GP practices – and there’s a good news story on long COVID. Talking General Practice will be back in January 2023. Merry Christmas a...
Dec 16, 2022•23 min•Season 3Ep. 15
Emma speaks to Dr Ellen Fallows a GP in Northamptonshire and vice president of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine about what lifestyle medicine is and how it can help GPs to improve patient outcomes. During this conversation Ellen explains how GPs can make use of lifestyle medicine in a 10-minute consultation, some of the evidence that supports the use of this approach to help improve outcomes for patients and how lifestyle medicine can help GPs tackle health inequalities. This episode wa...
Dec 09, 2022•20 min•Season 3Ep. 14
This week Emma speaks to Professor Aruna Garcea, a GP partner and primary care network clinical director in Leicester. Aruna is chair of the NHS Confederation’s primary care network advisory group and she also sits on her integrated care system as a representative clinical director. In this conversation Aruna explains the impact PCNs have had already, what makes a strong PCN and some of the key challenges networks have faced. We also talk about the introduction of integrated care systems and wha...
Dec 02, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 13
In our regular news review Emma and Nick look at what the BMA, GPs and NHS England might want from a new contract deal in England. The current five-year deal comes to an end in March 2024, and this week English LMCs will be gathering in London to set out a vision for what they want the BMA to push for in upcoming contract negotiations that will decide what happens next. Emma and Nick look at what we already know about the BMA’s priorities for negotiations, some of the other things LMCs will be d...
Nov 25, 2022•27 min•Season 3Ep. 12
This week Emma speaks to new RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne. Professor Hawthorne takes over as college chair from Professor Martin Marshall this week – on 19 November – so this is one of her first interviews in the role. Professor Hawthorne has been a GP for 34 years and practises in South Wales. She is a professor and head of graduate entry medicine at the University of Swansea - a role she has been seconded from for her three-year term as RCGP chair - and also a Bevan commissioner. She ...
Nov 18, 2022•27 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Today on the podcast we’re looking at personalised care and health coaching and how they could help practices and PCNs to improve health outcomes and population health in their patch. Emma is talking to Sheffield GP Dr Ollie Hart, who is also clinical director of a primary care network in the city. Ollie has been heavily involved in promoting and developing patient-centred care in Sheffield. In partnership with another GP he also runs a business called Peak Health Coaching, which trains healthca...
Nov 11, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 10
On our regular news round-up Emma and Nick look at the review into how the GMC handled the case of Dr Manjula Arora – the GP who served a month’s suspension over a claim she had been promised a laptop – and the GMC’s response to the findings. They talk about what’s going on with patient access to their prospective records online after a week of confusion that’s seen the 1 November deadline when IT suppliers were due to turn on this functionality for all of their practices missed. And they look a...
Nov 04, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Emma is joined by a very special guest Professor Sir David Haslam to discuss his new book Side Effects: How Our Healthcare Lost Its Way and How We Fix It . Along with being a GP for over 35 years Sir David has held a number of senior posts including being both chair and president of the Royal College of GPs, president of the BMA and chair of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), a post he held from 2013 to 2019. His new book explores what good healthcare should achieve an...
Oct 28, 2022•34 min•Season 3Ep. 8
This week on the podcast Nick and Emma look at the final report from the House of Commons Health and Social Care committee’s investigation into the future of general practice and explain its findings and key recommendations. They also discuss the former chair of that committee – Jeremy Hunt’s – appointment as chancellor. Emma highlights a really important interview from GPonline with Chris Milligan, the husband of GP Dr Gail Milligan who took her own life earlier this year. They also talk about ...
Oct 21, 2022•31 min•Season 3Ep. 7
This week Emma is speaking to Dr Devina Maru and Dr Liam Loftus who are both GP trainees and co-founders of The BIg GP Consultation. Devina and Liam set up The Big GP Consultation as a platform for GP trainees and early career GPs to discuss their vision for general practice – and to come up with ideas and solutions for how to address some of the many challenges facing the profession both now and in the future. In this interview they explain why they set up the initiative, changes they would lik...
Oct 14, 2022•36 min•Season 3Ep. 6
This week on the podcast Emma and Nick are talking about some new figures showing there has been a surge in vacant GP posts in London, which has left half of the capital’s practices operating with fewer doctors than they need when demand is at an all time high. They also discuss what the RCGP believes needs to happen to boost GP retention and what the latest NHS appointments data tells us about levels of workload in general practice in England. Plus they look at NHS England’s plans to help boost...
Oct 07, 2022•22 min•Season 3Ep. 5
This week on the podcast Emma speaks to Dr Helen Garr, the medical director of NHS Practitioner Health, the NHS service that looks after doctors and dentists - and also other NHS staff - who are experiencing mental ill health. In this conversation Emma and Helen talk about the impact that pressures on the NHS are having on doctors’ wellbeing and how this is affecting GPs in particular. Helen also explains what doctors and other NHS staff can do if they are suffering from burnout, how to prevent ...
Sep 30, 2022•41 min•Season 3Ep. 4
This week the team discusses the government’s latest push to improve access in general practice and some of the problems with the plans. They look at a groundbreaking new system that is being piloted in Devon, which will see work paused for practices facing extreme workload pressures. GP leaders have suggested the system could be rolled out nationwide within a year. And they talk about what plans to cap energy costs could mean for practices and what doctors say the government needs to do to addr...
Sep 23, 2022•25 min•Season 3Ep. 3
This week Emma speaks with Dr Veronica Grant, a GP in Derbyshire who was until recently the RCGP clinical champion for veterans health, about the healthcare needs of veterans and steps practices can take to better support veterans and military families. This is an interview that was recorded in November 2021. Since we recorded our last podcast we have seen the very sad news about the death of Queen Elizabeth. As the former head of the armed forces, the Queen is of particular significance to thos...
Sep 16, 2022•16 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Our regular news review is back. This week Emma and Nick talk about soaring energy costs and rising inflation and the impact these could have on GP practices They also look at what new prime minister Liz Truss and new health and social care secretary Therese Coffey could mean for general practice – and whether the government could prevent a possible crisis in the health service this winter. And in our regular good news spot they highlight an initiative from a group of GP trainees that puts forwa...
Sep 09, 2022•23 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Throughout August we’ve been showcasing some of the best interviews from series one of the podcast. This week Emma talks to Dr Rebecca Rosen, a GP in London and senior fellow at health think tank the Nuffield Trust, about continuity of care, the evidence to support it and steps practices can take to embed continuity of care in the way they work. This interview was recorded in October 2021. Since this was recorded we’ve written quite a lot about continuity of care on GPonline. The House of Common...
Aug 26, 2022•20 min•Season 2Ep. 32
