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The revolution has begun – by Nicola Davies

I’ve always thought that things moved quickly in primary care, and what a whirlwind the past few months have been. You would have to have lived under a rock to miss the fact that we now have an organisation representing us, PMs for PMs, our very own IGPM, and all created in such a short space of time. You might remember that in November last year, the four founders didn’t even know each other!

We had our third webinar this week and IT WAS AMAZING -YOU WERE ALL FABULOUS! Your support is outstanding and we absolutely know we’re doing the right thing. Members are flooding in (212 and counting!) and to know we have your backing is just a fantastic feeling.

However, on the same day, earlier that morning, we received notification that the ‘New to Partnership’ Scheme was being made available again, this time to Physicians Associates. Errrrr… WTAF?

Now, I haven’t got anything against Physicians Associates and I think they absolutely have a place within Primary Care.  Nevertheless, this is a relatively new post, created out of a need to manage primary care demand in a different way – and YET AGAIN – we have been stepped over, smacked in the face and pushed to one side.

It should come as no surprise to tell you that within minutes of that notification coming through, we emailed the BMA and NHS England to let them know that we were disappointed, to say the least. To be fair, Dr Krishna Kasaraneni (Chair of the BMA) wrote back to us virtually immediately to say that the scheme had always been open to clinicians in the first instance and while he recognised our disappointment, there are a couple of stumbling blocks in the way.

The first of these is the fact that “there is no recognised register”. HELLLOOOOOOOO,  this is what IGPM is trying to do!#faceplantsdeskagain. He went on to say that “there is an issue around Final Pay Controls and the extra charge that practices may face at the point of retirement of  a PM partner”

Apparently, NHSE and the GPC are keen to include PMs in the scheme and they’re all “working through the complexities of it”  but there is a confidence that these ‘complexities’ will be sorted.

So, I started off the morning with the red mist descending, that vein pulsating in my neck at what feels like a massive unfairness – but I ended the day with a beaming smile.  I had my ‘Bob Geldof’ moment and I didn’t swear (which may or may not have disappointed some of you) and for those of you youngsters who (a) didn’t get the Live Aid reference or (b) horror of horrors not even know who Bob Geldof is, I suggest you go onto YouTube.  His request to the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher (don’t you dare say “who?”) was a sight to behold.

The ‘revolution’ has begun! We WILL achieve everything we set out to achieve and that is my promise to you all.

Here endeth the lesson.

Nicola Davies

Practice Manager and Director of IGPM

#PMPower

To sign up for membership to the Institute of General Practice Management, you can click here.

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Nicola Davies

Practice Manager regularly ranting about the NHS. 35 years in Primary Care and still getting irritated by constant change for change sake! West Country Women Awards Nominee 2022 https://westcountrywomenawards.co.uk/

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One Response to “The revolution has begun – by Nicola Davies”
  1. Steve Mowatt Says:

    Good to see you on the webinar (for the brief period I managed to get in – the joys of PM work).
    I’m going to catch up on the recording this weekend and see what I need to do.
    You’re doing a damn good job as usual!
    All the best
    Steve

    Reply

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