Mark Newbold is managing director of Our Health Partnership, a super partnership of 32 GP practices in Birmingham covering a population of 280,000. This is the third time we’ve checked in with Mark to talk about OHP’s progress and he tells Ben about their in-house locum system, quality support for practices, new locality structure and potential growth. Our first podcast with Mark can be accessed here and our second (from May 2016) can be accessed here.

Ria Agarwal and Andy King are both physician’s associates, a role which remains controversial in general practice. In our latest podcast we begin an occasional series about this role by talking to Ria and Andy about the scope of their role, their route into becoming PAs and their contribution to the practices in which they work.

Jennifer Skillen is the Chair of the Patient Participation Group at Romney House Surgery in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. Jennifer is introducing a range of technical solutions to the thorny issue of how to positively engage patients in general practice. She tells Ben about the “virtual” PPG and its impact on the surgery.

Laura Sharpe and Paula Beare work for the successful City and Hackney GP Confederation which is formed of 43 GP practices. In this podcast they explain to Ben how they gained GP commitment to the confederation, how the confederation operates and the ambitious plans they have for the future.