There have been many comments recently regarding staff development, particularly about mandatory training, retake periods and who needs to do what training. Well, the ball lies in your court (to a certain extent) as Nigel’s surgery 70 states: “CQC does not have a list of mandatory training for members of the GP practice team”. You…

However positive you try to be, however hard you try to motivate morale across the practice and however hard you work to try and keep patients happy, there’s no escaping the fact that 2020 has been extremely challenging for practice managers. COVID-19 has turned the world on its head, making an already stressful, difficult sector…

A new report offers a framework to support primary care organisations following the death by suicide of a colleague. It was released yesterday (29 September) by the Society of Occupational Medicine, who created it together with the Louise Tebboth Foundation, which supports the mental wellbeing of doctors. The report, ‘Responding to the death by suicide…

Managers are all too aware of the perennial issue of recruitment to ensure that practices have enough employees, but in these changing COVID-19 times, the goalposts on recruitment appear to be changing. A long-standing reliance on expensive locums may be due for a switch, with GPs becoming far more willing to agree to salaried positions…

I am a practice manager in a large, semi-rural medical practice in Lincolnshire. We have just shy of 20,000 patients and a magnificent team of 60 dedicated individuals who provide clinical and administrative support in keeping the wheels of our little part of the NHS landscape turning. We all work exceptionally hard in normal times…

The Government’s recent announcement of pay rises for 900,000 public sector workers – including doctors, nurses and health visitors – unsurprisingly made headline news and prompted plenty of discussion on the topic. While the greater proportion of the column inches dedicated to the news covered the same ground we’ve been used to seeing for years,…

Another stealthy letter has passed across my desk. I’d missed it among the never-ending torrent of paperwork and guidance. Somehow it only slipped into my consciousness today; clearly, I must have been asleep at the end of last week. Last day of the month and last thing on a Friday – really? I must start…