Improving working relationships with GP partners: what do partners think? You may have a clear idea of what an effective relationship looks like between practice manager and partners but would the partners in your practice agree? What do they want from a good practice manager? And what do PMs need from them? We asked GP…

Complaints. It goes without saying that nobody likes receiving them, and they can seriously dent practice morale. However, if handled in the right way, complaints can be a good thing for your practice – which is something we’ll explore in this blog. The good news when it comes to complaints is that the total number…

A career civil servant who became a GP inspector is to oversee development of primary care networks, it has been announced. Ruth Rankine, the current deputy chief inspector of general practice at the Care Quality Commission, has been appointed as Primary Care Network development director at the NHS Confederation. The Confederation is working with national…

This is the third article in a series of three looking at grading practice staff salaries. View part one and part two.  Much is being written on the Practice Index forum about the plight of practice managers and their deputies. The discussion often centres around grading, working hours and workload. Principally, the size of a…

Cleaning standards and schedule How many times have you bumped into a new member of the cleaning team and they’ve looked… well, a little unsure about the job in hand? Even if they’re being supervised, the supervisor is also on a tight schedule and can’t watch them all the time… So, are you actually getting…

Are you still undertaking the payroll or book keeping yourself to save a few pounds of outsourcing costs? AISMA accountant Michael Ogilvie* explains why this can be a false economy. In our experience, some practice managers explain that doing the payroll and book keeping themselves gives them some respite from the pressure of managing a…

Pay rises, it seems, are an emotive subject. Plus, if the popular thread on the Practice Index Forum is anything to go by – click here to join the conversation – there’s a real mixed bag of regular pay rises, ad hoc increases, bonus payments and no rises to contend with. Reading between the lines…