The nights have started drawing in, flu clinics are in full swing and we’re heading towards the end of the year. Catch up with what happened during September across Practice Index.

Best of our blogs

Leaving negativity behind – By Stressed PM – “Recently I had a patient who wanted to speak to me. No surprise there; we all have them. Every. Joyous. Day… This was a man who’d arrived for his appointment before we’d even opened and stood 3mm away from the practice door glaring at us to be let in. After spending half of his 20-minute diabetic review moaning to the practice nurse about it, he thought I too needed to know about it.” Read more

Why I became a Practice Manager – By Kay Keane – “It’s all too easy to take what we do every day for granted; we’re so bogged down in the politics, the contracts, and the day-to-day business of running a practice. However, I’m not one to take things for granted, and I often like to reflect on how I got to be sitting in my office in Manchester in, what I can only describe as, my dream job. Yes, it has its challenges – but find me a job that doesn’t! Why do I do it? And why do I love it?” Read more

Motivating teams (and ourselves!) during those post-summer blues – By Susi O’Brien – “How is it September already? Goodness knows where summer went. Frankly, the question has to be asked; did we even have summer this year? I might have missed it with all the rain! Once holidays are over, schools go back, and supermarkets start selling off their remaining bags of barbeque supplies at half-price, it’s common to feel a bit flat. Today’s blog recognises this natural slump in motivation, and suggests some people-related projects that could be used to keep teams moving forward.” Read more

Crouch, bind, set. It’s scrum-time for CQC – By Phil Coates “Scores, aggregates, and ratings. Three words that many of us associate with sport; I could be writing about rugby but alas, that isn’t the feature of this blog. As Brian O’Driscoll once said, “rugby takes its toll”, and the same can be said for the CQC. How many changes are we going to have to tackle before we fully understand the new rules?” Read more

HR Clinic: Handling long-term sicknesss (Questions and answers) – In this month’s HR clinic, Robyn and Susi explored the challenge of managing staff who are on long-term sick leave. Here is a summary of the questions we received, and the answers given. Read more

Should partnerships reflect the changing nature of general practice? By Ben Gowland – “Gone are the days when practices consisted of a group of GPs working together, with an administrator providing support with the day-to-day running of the practice. The question is, should the makeup of partnerships be changing in the same way, to reflect the differences that now exist? Find out more in this month’s podcast.” Read more

September’s podcast

• The Practice Index Podcast: Episode 35 – Practice Managers as Partners

Popular new and updated resources [PLUS]

• Children’s flu campaign 2023
• National flu campaign 2023
• Flu campaign 2023 – Template for patient communications
• Removal of patients policy
• Electronic transfer of and access to the healthcare record
• Privacy notice – Practice
• Portable device policy
• Consent guidance
• Fit and proper persons policy
• Prescribing policy (Scotland)
• Staff induction policy

Popular forum threads

• What would your dream job be (if you weren’t a PM?)
• How to deal with malicious compliance?
• Waiting room TV, a must or a bonus?
• Practice handover – Lead GP retirement
• Remote working PM
• Staff immunisations matrix
• FOI request
• Global sum improvement to support practices in 6% pay increase
• Zero tolerance

New to Practice Index Training

• Finance Bundle – Everything you need to understand practice finances.

Practice Index Learning Package

New

• Whistleblowing (Scotland)
• Conflict Resolution (Scotland)
• Learning Disability and Autism Awareness (Tier 1 & 2) (Wales)
• Significant Events (Wales)
• Safeguarding – Enhanced (Wales)

Updated

 New features in the HUB

• Policy Manager – You can now apply bulk actions for policies in your Policy Library.
• Your own courses – You can now clone courses in the ‘your own courses’ section of the course library.
• 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.

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