Having spent the best part of four decades as a practice manager, it goes without saying that Elaine Wilkinson has witnessed an awful lot of change in general practice. In 40 years, Elaine has had to deal with countless clinical, administrative, technological and funding changes – which she has successfully dealt with by following two…

Community pharmacists are to get a fresh programme of training to help them take pressure off GP practices, it has been announced. Pharmacists will be offered training in patient-facing consultations and clinical assessments in a project backed by the Royal College of GPs. Pharmacies are now seeing 10,000 patients a week in England referred to…

GP numbers fell during the pandemic despite improvements in recruitment of trainees, according to new figures. Overall there was a reduction of 1.4% in the number of fulltime equivalent posts filled by GPs and registrars in the 12 months leading to June, leaving the workforce at 33,515. The detailed NHS Digital figures show numbers falling…

England is ready to set up a secure and standardised electronic system for patient discharge summaries and outpatient attendances, it has been announced. Developers said a trial in Dorset had proved successful, enabling more than 4,000 messages to be sent to four practices that volunteered to take part in the project. The system enables information…

Women working in the NHS have suffered a heavy toll of mental stress during the pandemic, according to the findings of a major survey today. Many women found themselves taking extra caring responsibilities outside work – with little chance to cut working hours, according to the NHS Confederation survey. More than 1,300 women took part…

There were new calls today for an inquiry into the pandemic crisis in care homes amid new allegations about how they were treated. Homes were forced to take untested patients from hospitals and placed under pressure to put Do Not Resuscitate orders on all patients, according to a report by the Queens Nursing Institute. Staff…

The future of public health and health prevention remains uncertain after the creation of a new agency last week. The controversial new National Institute for Health Protection has combined NHS Test and Trace with the work of Public Health England and the Joint Biosecurity Centre. Ministers say it will be better able to cope with…