Research shows that details as subtle as what we do with our arms, and how we position our feet accounts for 50-70% of all communication. So in a workplace where hundreds of patients come and go every day, being literate in body language is essential for you and your team. As well as for the…

Off the tracks! On 14/7/14 the Daily Telegraph reported a case of a practice manager who stole £160,000 from the practice where he was employed. He had used the proceeds to build a model railway, pay for holidays and a car. He had created false invoices to ‘cover his tracks’ and withdrew cash using the…

Blame Dr Google or the ‘era of entitlement’, but the difficult patient is on the rise and they’re costing your practice dearly – and not just financially. GPs with a high number of problem patients – or ‘heart-sinks’ as they’re best known in the profession – are less likely to report feelings of job satisfaction,…

The CQC started regulating general practices last year, grading them on a four point scale: “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement” and “inadequate”. David Behan, the CQC’s CEO, explains that their objective is to make sure people receive “safe, effective, compassionate, and high-quality health and adult social care”. Behan points out that the CQC has made “radical…

The life of a practice manager in a doctor’s surgery isn’t a stress-free or predictable job by any stretch of the imagination. You’re not only leading an admin team that’s normally made up of several job-shares, but co-ordinating a wider network of GPs, locums and nurses – often a different roll call every day of…

“All labour that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence,” said Martin Luther King, and where GP practice managers are concerned, we couldn’t agree more. Co-ordinating a team of medical professionals whose sole aim is to serve the public and keep people of all ages both happy and healthy…

It’s the major sporting event of the calendar year for many football fans, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. England may have crashed out early but soccer lovers everywhere are downing more than a few beers and settling back to watch the big matches. It’s certainly been one of the most entertaining World Cups of…