I’ve been writing articles since the mid 1990s and although I’ve lost count of the number of articles I’ve had published, I rarely get ‘writer’s block’ – but I have one at the moment! Hence, I’m writing about writing. When writing for the now-defunct Financial Pulse, the articles in the main were commissioned and I…

“In 1950 the average list size was 2,500 patients. The average practice size in July 2018 was 8,279 patients, which suggests a partnership size of around four and a half whole-time equivalents” (c. 42 sessions). “The Medical Practices Committee approved entry to the Medical List according to need, where high list sizes justified extra doctors.”…

Avid blog readers of the Practice Index forum will have read, hopefully with interest, my recent series of blogs on grading practice staff, but sadly the same readers will probably also have read the threads about the poor treatment some of our erstwhile practice managers experience. I’ve worked either in or with eight practices since…

It’s so worrying that I keep reading threads on the Practice Index forum about how difficult life is made for a practice manager by doctors and their staff. While there’s no ideal way to run a practice, there are approaches you can try to develop which may help you. One maxim is ‘Always have an…

A recent thread on the Practice Index forum asks how many hours of overtime practice managers work. As of now, over 80 responses have been received. It seems nothing much has changed since I retired because GP employers still seem to ignore the number of hours their managers work and fail to recognise the time…

This is the third article in a series of three looking at grading practice staff salaries. View part one and part two.  Much is being written on the Practice Index forum about the plight of practice managers and their deputies. The discussion often centres around grading, working hours and workload. Principally, the size of a…

This is the second article in a series of three looking at grading practice staff salaries. Part one can be found here What’s a job worth? Following on from the blog about clerical and administrative staff grading, this blog takes a closer look at the nursing team in a GP practice and the salaries that…