It’s not easy working in general practice right now. Many have reached this conclusion and decided to seek an alternative career, or head into retirement as soon as possible. Others have been put off joining in the first place. Of course, all this does is place even more pressure on those who are left behind.

Now, at the start of 2022, the situation feels worse than ever. Covid has left many exhausted, accelerating individual plans to retire or move on. The national shortage of workers that Brexit and Covid have combined to create means that there are problems with staffing at every level, from the lowest to the highest paid. And why work in the local GP practice when you can earn far more stacking shelves in Sainsbury’s?

Throw in the mandate to sack anyone who hasn’t been vaccinated, and to reduce the pay of most staff by increasing pension contributions and adding in a new social care levy, all on top of the pre-existing problems of an aging workforce and low morale, and it’s not hard to see why the workforce challenge has now reached crisis level.

What, then, are GP practices to do? This was a question our Practice Manager Panel discussed in our latest Practice Index podcast.

What is clear is that waiting for a national solution isn’t an option. Back in 2016, the GP Forward View promised 5,000 more GPs. Despite making zero progress against this pledge, following their election victory, the Conservatives upped this number to 6,000, yet we’re still to see any increase in the net number of GPs working in practices. The BMA laments the situation, but even it is only asking for the publication of workforce data, more training places, and a relaxation of the pension taxation rules. None of these things are going to help practices that are struggling now.

The reality is that practices need to be developing their own local solutions. The cavalry isn’t on the way.

So, where do we start? The first port of call is looking after the staff we currently have. Often, when faced with workforce gaps, our instinct is to throw all our efforts into recruitment. But looking after those staff who are still with us is more important than ever, especially when they’re picking up the pieces from recent departures. We need to make sure we take the time to understand what our staff want, what their plans are for the future, and how we can help them develop.

Covid has led to a big increase in the number of staff who are working remotely. While of course this has many positives, it does make the challenge of looking after these staff more difficult than ever before. How can we pick up when people are struggling or unhappy? We have to find new ways of checking in with our teams to make certain they feel looked after, and not abandoned simply because they’re out of sight.

Each practice also has to find what it can uniquely offer, to help it stand out when it tries to recruit. As touched on in the podcast, simply advertising job after job on NHS Jobs is unlikely to be successful. Practices need to become more creative in identifying what is special about their organisation that will make candidates choose them over Sainsbury’s or the practice down the road.

Increasingly, practices are having to become more creative about how they recruit and, in particular, who they recruit. The traditional skill mix in general practice is changing – not because the work is hugely different, but because the staff available to work are different to the ones we’ve traditionally employed. Changing the skill mix not only helps with finding new staff, but it also makes things more attractive for existing staff groups.

The workforce crisis is real, and while not every practice has been impacted equally, it will be very difficult for any practice to completely avoid the current challenges. Each practice needs to create its own workforce plan, and the sooner it does this, the easier the plan will be to put in place. It may even lessen the acuteness of the crisis.

Click play to listen to the podcast here: