Reviews. As a practice manager you’ve got to love them! You’ll go for weeks delivering exemplary treatment and service and there’ll be silence on NHS Choices or Google Reviews. Yet that one patient who has decided your service is less than perfect will turn out to be a review superstar, spreading one-star reviews everywhere you…

Plans to ensure new mothers discuss their mental health with GPs may have fallen foul of the pandemic, according to a survey published today. The appointments were introduced into the GP contract last year as part of a drive to improve maternal mental health. They are meant to be a separate discussion to the six…

Angling is to be added to the menu of options for practices seeking to tackle patient mental health problems through social prescribing, it has been reported. Patients in Greater Manchester can now be referred to an angling charity, Tackling Minds, the Daily Telegraph reported. Organisers hope the tranquillity of spending a day by the waterside…

Senior GPs have called for a national inquiry after new complaints that patients are heading to emergency departments because they cannot get appointments. GPs say they have been working harder than ever before – but are now facing “unprecedented levels of burnout.” The Doctors’ Association has written to health secretary Matt Hancock, senior NHS officials…

Practices in London are to have the option of referring patients for financial support and advice as part of a social prescribing scheme. The project is to run in Lambeth and Southwark and developers claim it as the first scheme of its kind. Known as Financial Shield, it has been developed by two charities, Responsible…

The pandemic has thrown up new employment problems for practices, leading to a surge in inquiries to helplines, it has been reported. Practice managers and GPs struggled with the implications of the pandemic, of long COVID, of staff fear of infection and of self-isolation, according to helpline staff. Practices sought advice about staff absences and…

Welsh lawmakers need to address the wellbeing of practices teams and ensure investment in technology, according to proposals released ahead of the country’s national elections. The Royal College of GPs Cymru Wales has called for three major priorities to help support general practice as Wales gradually emerges from the pandemic. It is asking Senedd electoral…