England is to get a thousand GP assistants to help reduce the workload facing doctors, it has been announced. The news was welcomed by the Royal College of GPs, which warned it should not be seen as a substitute for improving GP numbers. The GP assistants are to help with paperwork and to undertake basic…

Practice staff have been encouraged to be careful of hackers and cyberattacks and now an expert has shared a range of tips to protect systems. Mike Fell, Executive Director of National Cyber Security Operations at NHS Digital since April 2022, gave advice as part of international Cyber Security Awareness Month this October. He warns that…

Some UK newspapers declared a “war” on GPs because of their use of remote consultations, it was alleged today. Professor Trish Greenhalgh, of Oxford University, said some depicted remote GP consultations negatively and this resulted in politically driven campaigns for a return to face-to-face care. However, these campaigns ignored the challenges and workforce shortages that…

Ensuring patients experience personal continuity dependent on the characteristics of the practice and the patient and, in particular, on practice size, researchers report today. Interviews with ten practices in The Netherlands, combined with real-life data from 269,478 patients from 48 Dutch practices between 2013 and 2018, found that a larger number of usual GPs working…

GP leaders have reacted with dismay to a Labour pledge that patients will get a choice of face to face appointments. The proposal would limit practice ability to use phone screening and consultations. Speaking to the Labour conference yesterday Labour shadow health secretary Wes Streeting confirmed he wanted to give patients a “wider range of…

Practices in Northern Ireland are to get a package of support worth more than £5 million, it has been announced. The cash includes a £1 million allocation for a scheme to attract doctors to areas with recruitment problems together with £3 million to help practices through winter pressures, health minister Robin Swann said. There is…

Practices are to be set demanding new targets to book all appointments within a fortnight of patient requests – in a move that doctors’ leaders warned may accelerate the exodus from general practice. The two week target for English practices is a centrepiece of announcements today by new Health Secretary Therese Coffey. The Department of…