Practices are cancelling and refusing non-urgent appointments this week as the NHS is hit by the “most disruptive” strike ever. Trainee GPs are taking part in the action which is expected to see some hospitals struggling to maintain emergency services. NHS organisations in England were reported to be taking unprecedented measures to keep critical services…

Urgent action is needed to look after practice teams as they face a continuing increase in requests for appointments, GP leaders said following the release of the latest data. The latest set of GP appointment data in England shows a rise in the number of GP appointments, including face to face ones, with practices in…

Figures published today by NHS England highlight the acute problem of long delays for secondary care referrals. A problem that, once again, often falls on frontline GP practice care to deal with. According to the latest figures, nearly 225,000 people in England have waited over a year for routine hospital treatment. That’s the highest number…

In this final absence-related blog, I’m going to look at making the most of Occupational Health referrals and implementing reasonable adjustments. Occupational Health Sometimes it might seem that Occupational Health is a pointless and expensive exercise. But an Occupational Health report is only as good as the referral you make. The purpose of Occupational Health…

This episode follows on from ‘Managing persistent short-term absences’ and will focus on managing staff on long-term sickness leave. First of all, what constitutes a “long-term” absence? Four weeks. It’s that simple. Any absence lasting four or more calendar weeks is deemed to be “long-term”. Why is managing long-term absence any different?  Essentially, it doesn’t…

(Time to read: 6 minutes) A discussion thread on the Practice Index Forum has once again brought to the fore the hot topic of how GP practices balance pre-bookable and on-the-day appointments. The discussion – click here to access it – makes for interesting reading, with different practices utilising different appointment splits, many of which…

By Robert Campbell Have you ever attended an NHS out-patient department and wondered why there are so many people waiting? Have you ever been seen on time? Well, to be fair, sometimes I have. As you know, it’s all very well telling GPs to keep to ten-minute appointments but no one plays by such ‘rules’,…