Going into partnership and realising success as a GP Partner can be a difficult enough landscape to navigate but when you are from a black, Asian, or other minority ethnic background, simply finding the opportunity to apply and establish yourself within a partnership can be a challenge in itself, for a variety of reasons. In this week’s episode, Ben welcomes Drs Onyi Okonkwo and Mo Sattar, who provide insight into the barriers and issues both they, and colleagues within the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) GP network have faced (and continue to face) - and share their personal reflections from their respective journeys into senior partnership whilst offering practical advice for those considering taking on partnership on what to expect, how best to prepare and why a difference in culture shouldn’t be a hinderance to achieving success.

Introductions (15 secs)

A meeting of minds (40 secs)

Going into GP Partnership – Onyi’s story (1 min 35 secs)

Mo’s journey to partnership (2 mins 43 secs)

Transitional challenges (3 mins 37 secs)

Making the jump from salaried GP into partnership (5 mins 17 secs)

Dealing with a steep learning curve – advice from Mo (5 mins 59 secs)

Mo’s lessons learned (7 mins 49 secs)

Being propelled into senior partnership (8 mins 30 secs)

Access to formal support (10 mins 25 secs)

The benefit of coaching and mentoring (11 mins 13 secs)

Clinical versus management (13 mins 25 secs)

Issues facing GPs from a BAME background – from Mo’s perspective (14 mins 47 secs)

Onyi’s view (17 mins 12 secs)

Advice from Onyi for BAME GPs considering going into partnership (20 mins 52 secs)

A final word from Mo (22 mins 14 secs)

With patient demand at an all-time high, coupled with a steady increase in relevant funding and the issue of estates, we are having to think ever more creatively when it comes to workforce planning. When Haywards Heath Villages PCN detected that additional support was needed in improving patient outcomes for cancer and the uptake of cancer screenings, the Cancer Nurse Assessor role was born. On this week’s podcast, we talk to Dr Katie Spensley, PCN Clinical Director, and Esther Walker, Cancer Nurse Assessor, about Esther’s approach to the role, her learnings so far, working alongside the ARRS staff, her aims for the future both short and long term, the positive outcomes she is seeing and why she is already a hugely well valued member of the Haywards Heath Villages PCN team.

Introduction (9 secs)

Haywards Heath Villages PCN (21 secs)

The creation of the Cancer Nurse Assessor role (31 secs)

Funding streams (1 min 28 secs)

Esther’s background (2 mins 22 secs)

How does the role work in practice? (3 mins 56 secs)

Auditing the existing service (6 mins 29 secs)

What are Esther’s key objectives? (8 mins 50 secs)

The impact of the role on the PCN- and individual practices (10 mins 25 secs)

Long term plans; for Esther, the service, and the wider workforce (12 mins 39 secs)

Balancing resources against patient needs (14 mins 3 secs)

Esther’s reflections on the PCN transition (14 mins 31 secs)

Interfacing with the ARRS teams (16 mins 43 secs)

Development of staffing going forwards (18 mins 37 secs)

Lessons learned (20 mins 4 secs)

Finding out more / getting in touch (22 mins 33 secs)

Katie is very happy to speak to anyone wanting to learn more about the Cancer Nurse Assessor role and is contactable here.

If you would like to know more about the innovation within Hayward’s Heath Villages PCN, you can also contact their local federation, Alliance for Better Care (who have also recently featured on the podcast). Their website (which contains all the relevant information and contact points) can be found here.

Up until now, there has been a disparate and distinct lack of easily accessible information available to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and non-binary community on the practical processes and implications of changing title and gender marker. There have been many reports of misunderstanding and in some cases mistreatment, in the absence of clear guidance on entitlement and expectation; coupled with a widespread lack of knowledge and advice available to staff on the ground in general practice. Luckily, with the colliding of Pride in Practice, Indigo Gender Service, The Institute of General Practice Management and Practice Index worlds, a team of representatives from each have put their heads together, spent time gathering all the available information, experiences and knowledge, and together, Aimee, Luke, Kay, Ali and their colleagues have taken time out to talk us through what is already an invaluable resource; The Gender Identity Toolkit for General Practice.

Introduction (9 secs)

Our panel members (31 secs)

Meeting Aimee and the role of Pride in Practice (54 secs)

Dr Luke Wookey tells us more about Indigo Gender Service (1 min 58 secs)

Why was the toolkit created? (2 mins 51 secs)

The process of centralising knowledge and guidance (4 mins 11 secs)

The importance of information gathering and sharing, and a collective approach (4 mins 49 secs)

Confusion around records management and establishment of clear guidelines (5 mins 34 secs)

Existing barriers felt by the trans and non-binary community (6 mins 19 secs)

Bureaucracy, misunderstanding and a lack of knowledge on all sides (7 mins 23 secs)

How to get the most from the toolkit (8 mins 36 secs)

Summarising the process for changing title and gender marker (9 mins 14 secs)

The implications for screening and having access to a lead professional within the practice (12 mins 5 secs)

Bringing all the information together (13 mins 55 secs)

What difference will the toolkit make? (14 mins 14 secs)

A working example of the impact of Pride in Practice (14 mins 54 secs)

Ensuring the policy is adopted at a local level (16 mins 17 secs)

Applying the policy within daily practice (17 mins 47 secs)

Ensuring there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach (18 mins 42 secs)

Implications of records migration (19 mins 22 secs)

The training on offer from Pride in Practice (20 mins 48 secs)

Accessing the toolkit – and other resources (22 mins 27 secs)

The Practice Index website link to the toolkit (and the relevant discussion forums) is here

You can also access the toolkit via the IGPM website here

Pride in Practice’s website can be found here. If you are interested in learning more about the training on offer, please get in touch here

The link to the Indigo Gender Service website is here

Indigo Gender Service also have a dedicated email for healthcare professionals to get in touch which is indigo.advice@nhs.net - or you can contact Luke directly at lukewookey@nhs.net  

Luke has recently featured on another podcast with Primary Care Knowledge Boost around trans health which may also provide some additional useful information for primary care teams.

Kay is contactable on Twitter, if you have any further queries

The Gender Identity Toolkit Launch webinar is available on the IGPM YouTube channel now

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

In another of our series focused on Primary Care preparations for Integrated Care System (ICS) go-live in July and working alongside partners both old and new, we speak to Alliance for Better Care (ABC) Chair, Surrey Heartlands ICS Primary Care Leader and PCN Clinical Director Dr Pramit Patel, and ABC CEO Katherine Saunders, on the role of GP federations, and how they can both support and springboard practices and networks in making the most of the opportunities available in the new world. From establishment of meeting forums and well-balanced structures, to managing and maintaining effective communication across much wider remits, and the role of federations going forwards, ABC offer a best practice view of where we should be challenging our energies over the coming weeks and months, in the lead up to ICS launch.

Meeting Pramit (17 secs)

Introducing Katherine (44 secs)

The ICS / Primary Care Leader role (1 min 7 secs)

Executive Structure (2 mins 12 secs)

Reaching consensus across a large area; meetings and formal structures (2 mins 56 secs)

Summarising the existing setup (5 mins 28 secs)

How does engagement work, particularly at place level? (6 mins 14 secs)

A lone GP voice in the room? (7 mins 37 secs)

Getting a sense of how other parts of the system view general practice (8 mins 33 secs)

External perceptions of Primary Care (9 mins 41 secs)

How does the federation work to support general practice operations within the ICS? (10 mins 38 secs)

The role of the federations in the ‘new world’ (11 mins 56 secs)

Joint working between federations (12 mins 53 secs)

What should the objectives be for general practice, moving forwards? (14 mins 19 secs)

Communication of the positive possibilities (15 mins 49 secs)

What differences will we see and what impacts will we feel at ICS go-live? (17 mins 41 secs)

Readying practices, networks, and federations ahead of July (19 mins 23 secs)

Pramit’s top tips for others (20 mins 32 secs)

Advice from Katherine (21 mins 44 secs)

Further resources, support, and information, as advised by Pramit and Katherine, can be found within the dedicated Primary Care NHS Confederation webpage here

Katherine and Pramit are happy to speak to anyone who would like to learn more about the Surrey Heartlands / Alliance for Better Care journey towards integrated care. Please visit the ABC website for information and contact points.

There is no clear answer when it comes to the ‘ideal’ PCN setup, as it is all very much dependent on an individual spectrum of factors including (and not limited to) population size, numbers of employees, local health needs and priorities, financial setup, and more. With workload becoming ever more complex and demand continuing to grow for general practice services, is incorporation the answer when we are seeking to establish a safe and sustainable structures for the managing partners and their employees, going forwards? Luckily, DR Solicitors own Managing Partner Nils Christiansen features in this week’s podcast episode and guides us expertly through, not only the minefield of incorporation, but offers practical advice on safeguarding and streamlining the PCN as a business entity.

Introduction (9 secs)

The PCN issues which are on Nils’ radar at present (18 secs)

The Practice Agreement (59 secs)

Establishing a sustainable PCN model (2 mins 10 secs)

Discounting the lead practice model? (3 mins 38 secs)

Benefits of incorporation – risk management (4 mins 49 secs)

Other advantages of incorporation (5 mins 38 secs)

Addressing issues of parity (7 mins 31 secs)

When PCNs incorporate, does this affect the fabric of wider general practice? (8 mins 51 secs)

What’s the actual process for incorporation? (10 mins 46 secs)

Can we leverage our existing governance frameworks to make the process smoother? (12 mins 50 secs)

Additional admin burden (14 mins 10 secs)

Implications on the financial flows and resources (15 mins 27 secs)

Employment liabilities (17 mins 46 secs)

Transfer of employees into a new entity (20 mins 9 secs)

NHS Pensions (22 mins 1 sec)

Data on the numbers of PCNs who are incorporating (22 mins 36 secs)

Finding out more (24 mins 37 secs)

If you have more specific questions on any aspect of incorporation and your existing PCN setup, you can visit the DR Solicitors website here, telephone them on 01483 511555, or email Nils at n.christiansen@drsolicitors.com  

There are just a couple of spaces up for grabs on our new, online PCN Plus programme and the deadline for sign-ups is this week! Aimed at new PCN Clinical Directors, and experienced PCN Managers, and featuring a team of experts, we will be delivering training and advise on all the need to knows, including (and not limited to); establishment of a PCN vision, communications, managing finances and workforce, and preparations for integrated care systems. If you are interested in learning more, or you’re keen to confirm your space now, please visit our dedicated webpage or you can contact Ben for further information.