The GP shortage that pretty much all practice managers will have experienced in some form or another during their careers has been described as the “biggest challenge facing the NHS since its formation”. As there’s no miracle cure out there and no one person can fix the problem overnight, when a practice needs to recruit…

Burnout of all staff – not just GPs – is a real concern for practices up and down the country. An incredible four out of every ten GPs have taken or expect to take time off because of burnout as a result of increasing workloads and intense scrutiny, according to a survey by Pulse magazine.…

One of the questions Practice Index was asked by a practice manager recently related to staffing numbers and whether or not there was a formula for the correct number of staff to patients. The honest answer is that there isn’t one, although we can look at statistical data to find out what the average staff:patient…

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…

In another drive to safeguard the UK against an Ebola breakout, GP practice reception staff are now being briefed on how to deal with a suspected case either in person or over the phone. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt predicts ‘a handful’ of Ebola cases to reach the UK by Christmas, so a simple ‘common sense’…

A happy and appreciated team is normally one that’s more efficient and less absent from work. They’re more loyal, more creative when it comes to problem-solving, and they stick around for longer in your employment. Happier workers help their colleagues out three times more often than unhappy ones and they hit their targets 31% more…

Unplanned sickness absence already costs UK organisations around 16% of payroll, and sickies (legitimate or otherwise) now take a £29 billion chunk out of British businesses annually. But it’s a fact of life for any office manager that you will from time to time have to manage staff sickness, and sometimes extreme bouts of it.…