“Joey was sniffing for days and moaning about a headache. Now it’s Friday and he’s not here. There’s a Robbie Williams concert in town tonight!”

By Robert Campbell On the Practice Index website, I read about the problems practice managers experience when trying to reconcile staff contract terms to the raft of UK employment law. These terms include requirements for annual leave, a National Living Wage and numerous employment rights that bring in extra expenses. It’s a nightmare – and…

Written by Robert Campbell We’re moving house so my wife looked at the NHS Choices website to see what GP services are available in our new town. As it’s in a rural area she found a selection of main and branch surgeries in the new town and several different small towns nearby. But what I…

By Robert Campbell  There’s no doubt in my mind that well-managed practices are on top of their financial affairs. But it’s sad to see so many practices falling foul of the debt collector and struggling to pay their bills, or even becoming bankrupt and closing their doors. Pulls on purse strings Sometimes there are unexpected…

By Robert Campbell The most essential resource The most essential resource for a GP practice, apart from its clinicians, is its staff. The staff budget can account for over one third of the cost of running a medical practice. Before 2004 the value of a staff budget was relatively clear, as 70% was reimbursed by…

By Robert Campbell “Health Tourism costs the NHS in the region of £200 million pounds or 0.3% of the NHS budget each year.” The NHS’ rules about accepting and seeing patients, no matter what their place of origin or permanent residence, have become more relaxed over the years. In fact, NHS service providers don’t usually…

Are we dealing with ‘ghosts’? Don’t you wish you could grab hold of someone at Capita and throttle them?! Records are not arriving and now payments not being made. As an ex-FPC manager, I could be proud of the work we did to keep general practice running. The staff were knowledgeable and helpful, and whilst…