Our Practice Index Practice Manager panel return and this week, Robyn and Nicola are joined by two special guests, Brigadier Robin Simpson, RCGP Veterans Champion and the Professor of Military Primary Healthcare and Veterans Health at the University of Chester, and by Darren Davies, former Royal Military Police Staff Sergeant to highlight the issues faced by military veterans in accessing healthcare and how we in primary care can ensure there is better support for our veterans, post service, who frequently suffer in silence with seemingly invisible and escalating health conditions and concerns. With this in mind, the RCGP have launched their veterans’ healthcare toolkit and the GP practice veteran friendly accreditation, which offer insight and much needed guidance on making healthcare more accessible for those in our society who have sacrificed the most, but whose needs are all too often overlooked.  

Introduction (9 secs)

Congratulations to our Nicola! (22 secs)

Meeting our guest panel members (41 secs)

The advent of the veteran friendly practice programme (1 min 12 secs)

What are the differences between recognised veteran friendly practice and those who aren’t yet accredited? (2 mins 50 secs)

Darren’s take on the initiative and the impact on veterans (4 mins 8 secs)

The struggle of those returning from tour and access to healthcare (5 mins 37 secs)

Comparison with the more established support systems in the US (6 mins 38 secs)

Promoting practice sign up within a landscape of competing demands (8 mins 38 secs)

The accreditation process (10 mins 11 secs)

Nicola and Robyn’s experiences of sign up (11 mins 12 secs)

PCN accreditation (13 mins 30 secs)

Meeting the health inequalities agenda (14 mins)

Identification of a clinical lead (15 mins 19 secs)

What would it mean for veterans if every practice became accredited? – Robin’s perspective (15 mins 52 secs)

Darren’s view (18 mins 14 secs)

Finding out more and signing up (19 mins 16 secs)

If you’d like to find out more, or even better, spend 15 minutes signing up for the RCGP veteran friendly GP practice accreditation, we strongly encourage you to follow the link here.

For all enquiries about the Practice Index / Ockham podcast, please contact James Dillon or Ben Gowland.

Here at Ockham, we are always keen to explore how we deliver high quality content to our audiences and this week Ben is trialling something new. In a change to our usual format, Ben has recorded a solo, “bite size” episode offering his thoughts and advice for practices about the implications of the changing healthcare landscape. Starting from the top, with what Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) actually are, how they are comprised and how resources and funding are likely to be organised, onto what the new systems mean for practices and staff on the ground, the influence of the Fuller Report, how we could and should react and where the priorities and challenges lie, we hope you find our latest podcast offering as insightful and informative as ever!

All by myself…. (9 secs)

What are Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and why is the recent transition so fundamental? (36 secs)

The history and lead up to integrated care (1 min 11 secs)

Why size matters (2 mins 32 secs)

Priorities, challenges, and funding implications (2 mins 57 secs)

Partnership working with other providers (4 mins 8 secs)

Policy direction and the Fuller Report (5 mins 6 secs)

What do all the changes and proposals mean for individual practices? (7 mins 58 secs)

Local priorities; two approaches (9 mins 2 secs)

Maintaining independence whilst creating unity (10 mins 39 secs)

Why cohesive working and collaboration is key (12 mins 7 secs)

Working out how to best align to the strategic directives set out in the Fuller Report (12 mins 52 secs)

Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (14 mins 17 secs)

In Summary (16 mins 16 secs)

We need your feedback! (16 mins 58 secs)

We’d love to hear your views about Ben’s first solo podcast and whether you’ve found this shorter, summary edition helpful! Please do get in touch via email, via our website comment area, or via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook….