The numbers of people already vaccinated in this country is a huge success story.  Over six million doses already given and at a rate now of half a million doses per day, the majority of which have been delivered by primary care. Not many countries have a primary care system like ours, and we should…

Amidst the craziness of the past few weeks one thing has become more than apparent: we have a significant management capacity problem in general practice at the moment. The introduction of Primary Care Networks (PCNs) has been a challenge for a number of reasons, but increasingly because there simply is not the management capacity to…

The golden hello scheme was agreed as part of the 2020/21 GP contract deal and opened to applications on 1 July this year after being delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.  Golden hello payments are available to people taking up partnership roles in general practice for the first time after 1 April 2020, and can be claimed not…

It is a tough time for general practice right now, and a particularly tough time for practice managers.  Fast on the heels of having had to carry out risk assessments, establish mechanisms of virtual working and completely redesign the way the practice works all as a result of coronavirus, practices have had to undertake the…

There was a headline in the GP press recently that stated that, in real terms, GP partners’ income in 2018/19 was 10% below the figure recorded a decade earlier in 2008/9 (according to “official” data for England). But as is always the case with statistics, averages never tell the whole story. I know of practices,…

I was really excited when James from Practice Index approached me with the idea of a ‘practice manager panel’ where we could discuss topical issues on the podcast.  The practice manager voice hasn’t always been as strong as it could be on the General Practice podcast, and this was the perfect opportunity to put that…

(Time to read: 4 minutes) By Ben Gowland Some things feel like they’ve been around forever. I don’t remember a time when there was no TV, but my parents assure me people used to spend evenings doing things other than sitting on the sofa and flicking through channels. Hard to imagine. But then I remember…