Are pharmacists the answer to easing practice workloads? Or can pharmacists ease practice workloads? One of the major news stories this week has been the launch of NHS England’s 10 point plan to address staff shortages in general practice. Along with incentivising GPs to postpone retirement, the plan includes piloting schemes to introduce new grades of support…

Hello! This is my first time at blogging so be gentle with me! I guess I should start by sharing a bit about my background. I’m in my mid 40s, British Asian, and I’ve worked mainly in the private sector since graduating in 1993. I won’t bore you with too much (as you can read…

We’ve been there too, and we feel your pain. It can be incredibly challenging and time-consuming to have to manage an employee who rubs others up the wrong way, who likes to do things their own (difficult) way or who for whatever other reason is challenging to manage effectively. But it’s your prerogative as manager…

It has been reported this week that NHS England is considering allowing CCGs to handle patient complaints about GPs, following criticism of the current system by a parliamentary committee. The House of Commons Health Committee highlighted examples of primary care complaints from Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly being passed to a call centre…

Managing a practice of many different types of people and different types of personalities is no mean feat, but often all the training in the world won’t equip us for one of the most fundamental issues in managing people: problem personalities. Coping strategies for team members with tricky character traits tends to fall into two…

Jeremy Hunt announced on Thursday (15th January 2015) that every GP practice in the UK will receive a letter inviting them to bid for a slice of the £1bn funding made available by the chancellor for upgrading primary care facilities. The key purpose of this cash is to support PCT infrastructure, the provision of more…

This month can be a bit of a slump in the workplace after the excesses and frivolities – not to mention that lovely time off work – over Christmas and New Year. But the January Blues, as your GPs may well testify, is a very real affliction that can need more than the arrival of…