Another change is coming, another testing time for general practice. By April 2020, patients are to be given online access to their complete health care records – that’s seven months from now! Whilst in the first instance this will undoubtedly increase the pressure across the sector and create additional workload for practice teams, could it

If you were to ask ‘what is team development’, I wonder what responses you’d get? Would people focus on personal development, learning new skills or would they think of it as team-building and conjure up images of themselves on an obstacle course? What we’re really trying to achieve is the development of the team with

Appraisals are an essential part of your role, and are vital for the development of your team. The NHS constitution requires organisations to provide staff with clear roles and responsibilities, opportunities for personal development and line management, to support them to succeed.[1] Integral to this requirement is the need for appraisals or what some people may

When we discuss networking, we’re often talking about networking as individuals, building relationships and sharing experiences, expertise and contacts. So what approach is being taken towards Primary Care Networks (PCNs), and how are you going to ensure your network’s going to succeed? The approach should be very similar. If it’s going to succeed, member practices

Imagine you work at a practice where you only ever receive comments, compliments or suggestions to improve your working practices. Your patients only want to see you to tell you how good your team is; they send thank-you cards and bring gifts as a way of showing their appreciation for the service they receive. Okay,

In the previous two blogs we’ve covered induction, handovers, terminology, collaborative working and working at scale. Now you’re settling into the role, you know your organisation, you know the team and you’ve got a good understanding of your role. But what about contracts? Do you know enough about contracts? Would you like to know more?

How did you feel after reading the first blog on this subject? I hope you weren’t too worried or even disillusioned. If you were, is that perhaps because you haven’t yet assumed the role, or haven’t undergone an effective induction process? What about your handover; what did it involve and was it comprehensive enough? What