In the latest of our Livi-sponsored podcast episodes, Ben speaks to Dr Harriet Bradley, GP, and Medical Director at Livi, and Dan Kane, GP Federation Chief Executive Officer at Northampton General Practice Alliance, about the widespread shortage of GPs across the country, and how Livi are working with local systems to support them in meeting patient demand and increasing capacity. Harriet talks to us about the Livi ethos, their work and how they operate as a service and also, from the perspective of local practices and networks, Dan is able to offer valuable insight into the impact that employment of Livi’s services has made on them in not only increasing the availability of doctors but as to how the service has been received by primary care staff and the benefits felt by the patients they serve.   

Introductions (1 min 4 secs)

Meeting Livi’s Harriet Bradley (1 min 20 secs)

Meeting Dan Kane, Northampton General Practice Alliance’s CEO (1 min 49 secs)

The relationship between Livi and GPA (2 mins 15 secs)

How does the service work in practice and how are the Livi GPs embedded within existing local systems? (3 mins 24 secs)

Tailored support models for each individual area (4 mins 22 secs)

The response from practices (5 mins 34 secs)

Support at federation level (7 mins 26 secs)

Building trust and effective communication channels (8 mins 30 secs)

Dan fills us in on the GPA journey with Livi and why they decided to use their services (9 mins 36 secs)

How do local GPs feel about Livi? (10 mins 40 secs)

Getting buy-in from the get-go (11 mins 50 secs)

Integration with EMIS and SystmOne (12 mins 57 secs)

Building up the reserves of doctor capacity from Livi’s perspective (14 mins 21 secs)

IT access and requirements (15 mins 26 secs)

Funding and payment to Livi (15 mins 58 secs)

Who typically commissions Livi’s services? (16 mins 55 secs)

What’s next for Dan and GPA? (17 mins 37 secs)

What are Livi’s aims and aspirations, going forwards? (19 mins 5 secs)

Advice from Dan on key considerations and what works (20 mins 1 sec)

Getting in touch with Livi and finding out more (21 mins 39 secs)

To find out more information about Livi, their services and how to get in touch, check out their website here.

With the nights now beginning to draw in, the reality of the cost-of-living crisis is looming large over general practice. With charges for heating, lighting, and overall maintenance of our premises going up, coupled with the impact of inflation on pay, the promised staff pay rises and the difficulty of balancing the books ever more challenging, and with all the usual winter pressures now around the corner…something has got to give. Our ever-popular Practice Index panel members, and Institute of General Practice Management (IGPM) directors, Robyn, and Nicola, return to discuss their own concerns, the approaches they are taking in their own practice areas, and share their thoughts about the key considerations for primary care, as a whole.

Introduction (9 secs)

What has Nicola been up to since our last conversation? (22 secs)

And what’s keeping Robyn busy right now? (43 secs)

What are the challenges of the cost-of-living crisis at practice level? (59 secs)

Balancing staff pay rises (2 mins 35 secs)

Maintenance of buildings and services and rising utilities costs (4 mins 37 secs)

Travelling, home visits, and fuel charges (5 mins 25 secs)

Staff turnover (6 mins 39 secs)

Patient health and wellbeing and the potential for a further increase in demand (8 mins 3 secs)

Implications for GP Partners (9 mins 47 secs)

Sustainability of the practice as a business (11 mins 43 secs)

Is there any support available? (13 mins 4 secs)

Action from the Institute of General Practice Management (14 mins 2 secs)

Making the primary care voice heard (15 mins 14 secs)

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

Integrated Care Systems are here and with them, the advent of new ways of working and yet more healthcare terminology! Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) may be an original concept to many of us in general practice but in Suffolk and North East Essex, they have been in existence for a little bit longer. In this week’s podcast episode, sponsored by Livi, we are privileged to be joined by Maddie Baker-Woods, Director of Ipswich and East Suffolk Alliance at Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, and Paul Little, Director for Integrated Health and Care at Suffolk County Council and East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust, who explain how their own, established network of INTs work, how the teams interact with PCNs and primary care more widely, the challenges, and rewards, they have encountered on their own journey – and why localised care is key to meeting the needs of individual population areas, rather than a more widespread approach.

Introduction (9 secs)

Meeting Maddie and Paul (1 min 6 secs)

Maddie’s role (1 min 16 secs)

All about Paul (2 mins 9 secs)

Building Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (3 mins)

Organising services and a locality-based model (4 mins 33 secs)

Balancing relationships between integrated neighbourhoods and primary care networks (6 mins 53 secs)

Overcoming barriers (7 mins 24 secs)

Working with constraints and challenges (8 mins 30 secs)

How does general practice feed into the integrated neighbourhood teams? (9 mins 8 secs)

Accountability (10 mins 48 secs)

A place-based versus organisational (top down) approach (12 mins 55 secs)

The influence of local demographic (14 mins 28 secs)

Positive outcomes (15 mins 42 secs)

Helping people to be as independently functioning as possible (17 mins 44 secs)

Advice from Paul for others embarking on the same journey (18 mins 51 secs)

Maddie’s top tips (20 mins 45 secs)

Estates and co-location (21 mins 6 secs)

Where general practice should be prioritising their efforts (21 mins 30 secs)

Finding out more (24 mins 14 secs)

To learn more about the work of NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, check out their website here.

This podcast episode is sponsored by Livi, the first digital healthcare provider to be rated Outstanding by the CQC. Further information about Livi and what’s on offer can be found here.

This week heralds the start of the new term and a return to weekly podcasts, and we are incredibly privileged to be joined by Dr Naj Seedat; GP Principal and Partner at a large practice in Ilford, northeast London, LMC Board member, GP appraiser and one of the founding fathers of his local GP federation. In this episode, Naj and Ben discuss the challenges faced by those new to GP partnership; the key considerations for those debating whether or not to make the leap into partnership, the experiences of both old hands and those who are just starting out, partnership in the context of the ever evolving primary care landscape, the rewards of partnership and why the New to General Practice Partnership Programme Naj and Ben are launching can be instrumental in shaping and supporting the journey to partnership, and beyond.

Introduction (9 secs)

A bit about Naj (17 secs)

What’s life in partnership like right now? (38 secs)

Is partnership still an attractive prospect whilst nationalism of general practice is being mooted? (2 mins 24 secs)

Working autonomously (4 mins 23 secs)

Transition to partnership and how the programme can help (6 mins 15 secs)

Navigating the Human Resources minefield (9 mins 3 secs)

Managing finance (10 mins 31 secs)

Monitoring practice performance and local KPIs (13 mins 34 secs)

Understanding how to best manage your business and benchmarking progress (15 mins 51 secs)

The external environment / Integrated Care Systems (16 mins 35 secs)

Signing up to cohort three of the New to Partnership Programme (17 mins 57 secs)

It’s not just for GPs! (18 mins 30 secs)

Access to resources and knowledge (19 mins 25 secs)

The next cohort of the New to General Practice Partnership training programme begins on Tuesday 11 October. To find out more and to grab one of the remaining spaces, please follow this link.