The sun is out and it’s almost summer! During May, Practice Index brought you new resources, interesting blogs and updates. If you missed any, you can catch up here.

Access all areas by Paula the PM  – NHSE have released their Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care along with covering letter. Well, dear readers, I’ve waded through it, as I’m sure many of you will have done, and I’ll admit to being a bit confused.

Walk your way to wellbeing – In the first lockdown, I started walking daily. We’re lucky to live in a rural location, and so I made the most of the time allowed for exercise, and the roads were quieter than usual, which was pleasant. But life moved on, and time became shorter. I’ve recently taken up walking again though.

Are you a parkrun practice? – The collaboration between parkrun UK and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) was launched in 2018, with the aim of raising awareness of parkrun amongst GPs and practice staff and encouraging them to take part in parkrun. This scheme promotes signposting patients to parkrun events, supporting the growth of social prescribing and helping to build integrated and supportive local communities which are centred on wellness.

Handling tricky reference requests for current or ex-employees – There are many reasons why an employment relationship could falter – including misconduct, poor performance, personality clashes, absence, or just the way circumstances fall. Whichever reason applies, trying to respond to a reference request for an employee or ex-employee in that situation can be awkward.

The Training Handbook – Our brand new 39-page handbook contains everything you need to ensure compliance with mandatory and role-essential training requirements.

May’s podcast: The Practice Index Podcast: Episode 31 – Staff Wellbeing and Retention

Newest resources [PLUS]

• Research guidance document
• Armed forces reserves policy (Northern Ireland)
• Managing access and patient demand policy (Scotland)
• Central alerting system policy (Wales)
• The Training Handbook
• Home visit policy (Wales)

Updated resources [PLUS]

• Partners joining and leaving guidance
• Portable appliance testing (PAT) and calibration testing policy
• Employee mobile phone and smartwatch policy
• Managing access and patient demand policy
• Prescribing policy
• Grievance policy and procedure
• Grievance notification hearing outcome
• The Governance Handbook
• Waste management policy
• Data Security and Protection Handbook
• Explaining the NHS Pension Scheme – A guide

Popular threads

• What’s the hardest thing about your job?
• Missed telephone consultations
• Pay increases – what are you doing?
• Is part time working a bigger problem than we think?
• Is the PM role being devalued and eventually doomed?
• Patient comments on Google review
• Call recording

HUB updates

New:

Learning Package courses

• HR Masterclass – Module 8 (Bullying and Harassment)
• CQC Quiz for All Staff
• Complaints Management (Wales)

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.

Updated: 

Safety Alerts Manager – Additional “Manage this alert” options including Date Acknowledged, Relevance, Straightforward or Complex and additional Outcome options.

Dashboard – Holiday Manager pie chart updated.

Policy Manager – You can now click on any policy category name in the Policy Library to automatically create a filtered list view for that category.

Significant Events Manager, Complaints Manager and Compliments Manager –  These modules have a “Ratings” field (None, Green, Amber, Red) which you can apply to entries and filter against.

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