A topic that came up in conversation recently with a practice manager surrounded how GP practices can be responsive to the needs of its population. This is something that practices definitely need to keep an eye on, especially as it’s an area that CQC inspections focus on and given the population of the UK is…

Is collaboration the future? Over the last year or so, the number of GP practices working in collaborative arrangements has accelerated. So much so that research by the Nuffield Trust think tank on behalf of the RCGP reckons three in every four practices have some sort of collaboration in place and 44% of these new…

11th August 2016 Dear Mrs May Firstly, may I congratulate you on your appointment as Prime Minister. I now wait with baited breath for Mrs Clinton to become President and we will have three strong women in power! (About time too!) I write to you in my capacity as a Practice Manager working in Primary…

By Robert Campbell Famously, Matilda shouted fire so often that her final call of ‘Fire’ was ignored and the house burnt down.  In the days when the poem was written no one was aware of the need for a Risk Assessment. To me, I would associate a risk assessment with the inspection of a building…

By Elizabeth Lloyd How do you know if your practice is as profitable as the next one? Could you and your team improve performance? While your practice accounts will help your GP partners assess their investments in the practice, together with their taxable and pensionable profits, it’s increasingly important for this financial data to be…

Health regulators have admitted losing the records of 500 senior staff working in health and care services. The disclosure and barring service records went astray during an office move at the Care Quality Commission in Newcastle. The CQC checks the security of records held by practices carefully as part of its controversial system of inspections.…

A GP practice recently hit the headlines when it refused to register a new patient. While the practice argued it was because the patient was a member of a family that had a history of being ‘difficult’, the media latched on to the story because the wannabe patient was an EU migrant. Given this story…