The start of the year is often a chance for practice managers to think about annual leave allowances for the year ahead. If you’re up to your ears in spreadsheets and pro-rata calculations, you might be feeling the pressure. Calculating annual leave correctly for dozens (and in some cases, hundreds) of employees is no picnic.…

For many of us, we’ve returned from the Christmas break this week to a new annual leave year and, undoubtedly, a spate of holiday requests for the months ahead. Working in primary care, it’s highly likely that your team members work different hours, over varying days, and some will be part-time – so, you’re faced…

A GP has shared photographs of a practice “trashed” by a patient. Dr Shehla Imtiaz-Umer, from Derby, said it was “a miracle” that no one was harmed in the incident, which happened on Thursday. The GP said the incident was a sign of how “violence, abuse and aggression” against GPs and their staff was continuing…

Practices were overwhelmed yesterday as they faced pressure to keep patients out of hospitals amid the “collapse” of services. Hospitals resorted to extreme measures to release beds and manage patients as the “unprecedented” winter surge of illness continued. Growing numbers of NHS trusts declared critical incidents while in West Yorkshire the Integrated Care Board messaged…

The number of fully qualified GPs in England has plunged to its lowest level for years, according to new figures. The number of full time equivalent fully qualified doctors fell to 27,392 last month, the lowest level in the last seven years, according to the NHS Digital data. It represented a 1.7% decline in one…

Here we are in December, the season of goodwill! Yet on social media, kindness and Christmas cheer appear to have eluded a number of people, leading to negativity and, sadly, in some instances, personal attacks on practice feeds. We’ve consistently heard from practices that this trend has been on the increase since COVID-19, and when…

Some GPs have been transporting acutely unwell patients to hospital in their own cars because of ambulance delays, British Medical Association leaders have warned. The BMA’s GP committee for the UK revealed this was happening as it rejected a call for GPs to cover for paramedics during today’s ambulance strike. The committee has passed a…