July meant the start of school holidays, an election, a new government, and lots of change in general practice. Catch up with the monthly roundup of news and updates across Practice Index.

Best of our blogs

1999? – By PM Polly – This was no ordinary New Year’s Eve; we were anxious. As the clock struck 12, we waited nervously to see what would happen next. We’d been warned about it for years: the Millennium Bug. It was time. As it turned out, nothing happened. We had to wait another 25 years and a few months for the type of bug we’d expected to hit that night – 19th July 2024, to be precise. Read more

Seven requests that Practice Managers have for the new government – So, as the dust settles after the election, we thought it was time to ask Practice Managers what they’d like to see from the new administration over the coming months. Read more

“I don’t want to make this formal, but…” – Responding to unofficial disclosures – By Susi O’Brien“ – Can I speak to you about something…?” I think these words strike fear into most managers’ hearts when uttered quietly by a staff member who’s slipping into the room. We know that something is coming, but we don’t know what. Read more

The voice of Managing Partners – By Ben Gowland – Adrian Down, Managing Partner at Caythorpe and Ancaster Medical Practice and a regional IGPM representative, raised an important issue at this year’s LMC UK Conference. He highlighted a significant oversight when it comes to the voice and influence of non-GP Partners. Read more

Managing irregular working patterns – Pressure in general practice has become the norm. One of the options we might embrace is changing working patterns to accommodate patient needs, staff needs and the desire for a healthy, balanced life. Read more

Explaining the NHS Pension Scheme 2024 – The NHS Pension Scheme is enough to give any manager that sinking feeling, and it doesn’t help when rules and regulations are constantly changing! To keep you on track, the free downloadable guide, Explaining the NHS Pension Scheme, has been fully reviewed and updated throughout for 2024. Read more

Calculating GP session entitlement using Holiday Manager – Did you know that Holiday Manager can easily help you calculate annual leave entitlement for your staff members who work in sessions? Discover how. Find out more

Popular new and updated resources [PLUS]

• Continuity of care policy
• Correspondence management policy (Wales)
• Correspondence management policy (Scotland)
• Smartcard policy
• Record retention schedule
• Interview pack – Physician Associate
• Homeworking policy and procedures
• Caldicott and confidentiality policy
• Complaints procedure – England
• Partnership guidance document
• PCN DES guidance
• The use of NICE guidance
• Employee Handbook
• Explaining the NHS Pension Scheme – A guide [FREE]

Popular forum threads

• You as a patient
• Difficult patient
• Reception team nightmare
• PIP claims!!
• Deaths and mortality meetings?
• Any ideas how I go about dealing with this?
• Birthday/maternity/wedding collections
• Can I “scrap” bank holidays?

New Practice Index Training courses

Motivational Interviewing
Prescriptions and Prescribing Explained

You can see a full list of training courses here.

Practice Index Learning Package

Updated:

• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• Significant Events & Safety Incidents – An Overview
• Moving and Handling Level One (All Staff)
• Moving and Handling Level Two (Clinical Staff)

You can find out more information about our Learning Package here.

New features in the HUB

• Improved importing for bulk policy upload
• Notifications – You can now select which notifications you’d like to receive by email and change the ‘Unread Notification Reminders’ email settings
• Significant events – The significant events export now includes SEA details and a summary of any actions

Holiday Manager

• Add comments to some reports
• Birthday and Carer’s Leave now added as other absences
• Hold periods now available by team
• Overall improved navigation
• Ability to select visibility of private notes each time you add a note
• Ability to select who receives notifications on a Team basis within Practice Settings
• ‘Roundup’ feature now available to allow you to round up annual leave for all staff

HUB support videos 

• How to register for a HUB account
• How to set up your staff in the Practice Index HUB
• A short overview of the packages contained within the Practice Index HUB
• Calculating pro-rata bank holidays for part-time staff
• How to control who receives leave request notifications in the HUB
• How to use the new round up feature in Holiday Manager
• A full overview of the Library
• How to amend the email notifications you receive
• Learning Manager – A full overview
• Learning Manager – A quick overview of Course Defaults
• How to add additional courses to be completed via Job Roles
• A full overview of the Noticeboard

Help Centre – A compilation of FAQs, useful videos, and information on our HUB products

HUB weekly support sessions – Join one of our weekly sessions to discover more about the HUB and what it can offer.

Further updates can be found here.

If you’d like to know more about Practice Index PLUS and any products in the HUB, you can book a demo here.