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 medical committees and discuss some of the key motions up for debate and they talk about the state of GP ...
May 17, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 40
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 vice chair for external affairs Dr Victoria Tzortziou Brown about how we can achieve parity of esteem...
May 10, 2024•25 min•Season 4Ep. 39
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 and look at the government’s plans to tackle the ‘sick note culture’ that could see GPs lose their ...
May 03, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 38
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 of interventions and ideas for improving access. Jake explains why access is much more complex and nu...
Apr 26, 2024•27 min•Season 4Ep. 37
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 should be increased further this year - as well as some of the steps practices are being forced to consid...
Apr 19, 2024•35 min•Season 4Ep. 36
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 contract changed to give practices and PCNs more freedom to work in partnership with local communities...
Apr 12, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 35
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 struggle to find work at the same time as £1.4bn of funding a year is pumped into the additional role...
Apr 05, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 34
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 flexible approach to GP retention than is currently available. They also talk about what GP practic...
Mar 29, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 33
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 results of a new BMA survey of GP registrars about their future career intentions. And they look at ...
Mar 22, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 32
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 crucial period for the profession that could see GPs head towards industrial action later this year. I...
Mar 15, 2024•38 min•Season 4Ep. 31
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 services because of funding constraints. They also look at what happens next after the BMA launched its referend...
Mar 08, 2024•40 min•Season 4Ep. 30
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 build an NHS that is focused on communities rather than hospitals. The report says that the government...
Mar 01, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 29
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 discuss appointment data and patient data for the whole of 2023 and how general practice fared over t...
Feb 23, 2024•30 min•Season 4Ep. 28
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 interview Ellen discusses the process of writing the book and why she chose this topic, what she learne...
Feb 16, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 27
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 – including whether industrial action could be on the cards. In other news, they look at what’s going on w...
Feb 09, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 26
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 managers are hoping to see from the next GP contract. Robyn also explains the current financial pressure...
Feb 02, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 25
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 parts of the NHS, including hospitals, community services and mental health services – and how it i...
Jan 26, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 24
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 set up a national forum for racial and ethnic equality - the first time it had such a group. It als...
Jan 19, 2024•42 min•Season 4Ep. 23
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 those GPs and others from the world of primary care who received New Year Honours. This episode was p...
Jan 12, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 22
In this bonus episode Talking General Practice speaks to Dr Helen Evans-Howells, about how GPs can manage infants presenting with the signs of cow’s milk allergy. Alongside working as a GP and an allergy specialist, Helen also runs the peanut immunotherapy clinic in Southampton Children’s Hospital and is chair of the charity Anaphylaxis UK’s Clinical and Scientific Panel. In this episode Helen explains the key symptoms of milk allergy, the different types of formula that can be used, and when in...
Jan 09, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 21
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 shortfalls they’ve experienced in recent years. They also offer lots of useful advice on how practices...
Jan 05, 2024•37 min•Season 4Ep. 20
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-round general practice expert and fellow podcast host Ben Gowland. And between them they’ll be talking a...
Dec 29, 2023•36 min•Season 4Ep. 19
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 of England. They also look ahead to next year and some of the key news stories that are likely to be impo...
Dec 22, 2023•25 min•Season 4Ep. 18
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 doctors who enter GP training each year are now IMGs, which means they received their initial medical q...
Dec 15, 2023•36 min•Season 4Ep. 17
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 this week is about a British GP's success Down Under. This episode was presented by GPonline editor Em...
Dec 08, 2023•38 min•Season 4Ep. 16
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 Force focusing on supporting neurodivergent staff working in general practice. Beckie and Catherine ...
Dec 01, 2023•34 min•Season 4Ep. 15
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, in particular some of the problems relating to funding reaching practices when there are housing dev...
Nov 24, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 14
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 Talk Cancer podcast. In this conversation Sarah and Rebecca explain how the pandemic and the current ba...
Nov 17, 2023•37 min•Season 4Ep. 13
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 a GP is, and they look ahead to the England local medical committee conference at the end of this mo...
Nov 10, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 12
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 primary and secondary care through health creation, prevention, and early intervention. It is based on...
Nov 03, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 11
