In this month’s Practice Index sponsored panel episode Ben is joined by panel regular Robyn Clark, and HR expert Susi O’Brien. They discuss what life is like in practices now following the GP contract update and reflect on the potential future pressures for practices. They consider the funding that is going to be provided, what the time ahead could look like for GP practices and what changes may need to be made. Susi explains how to decide the best options for the practices and how to manage changes through open engagement with employees. Robyn and Susi share their concerns around the new contract and how practices will cope with the new requirements alongside limited funding.
Introduction (0:09)
Life in practices following the GP contract letters (0:51)
Funding for practices.. (1:38)
Effects of the funding (3:49)
What changes are practices considering? (4:51)
How to go about introducing the changes? (6:00)
Openness within the GP practices (9:00)
How to start thinking about your options? (10:45)
Changing employee terms & conditions.. (12:25)
Making redundancies fair.. (14:59)
Lessons learnt from previous experience? (16:36)
Legal perspective around GP’s striking? (18:00)
What action is needed? (19:07)
Last words of advice.. (20:52)
To visit the Practice Index website, click here or contact James Dillon here.
For all enquiries about the Ockham podcast, please contact Ben Gowland here.
In this week's episode, Ben is joined by guest, Dr Richard Wood, co-CEO of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire LMC. Richard discusses his day-to-day role, directing the teams which execute the LMC’s agenda. He shares his thoughts behind the Integrated Care System and what the move means for General Practice and also the thinking behind the GP Leadership groups. Richard took over as co-CEO in 2018, on the podcast he explains what he felt was important at the time, what route he went down and how the groups look today. Finally, Richard shares the lessons he has learnt along the way and any advice he has for others on the same journey.
Introduction (0:09)
Richard Woods day to day role (0:25)
Place based Leadership routes within an Integrated Care System... (0:45)
The thinking behind needing GP Leadership groups (2:09)
LMC or system request? (3:05)
Is there a potential for LMC to grow? (4:21)
What locations are you connected with currently? (5:59)
Tell us about the process you went through… (7:32)
Any surprises from the principles? (9:36)
What route did you go down? (10:10)
How to prevent the smaller groups from being isolated? (11:29)
PCN CD’s… (12:41)
How does funding work? (13:51)
What is involved in the meetings? (16:15)
What does success look like within the groups? (18:02)
How do the groups work together to have an influence? (19:10)
Dr Woods' advice.. (20:10)
Final words.. (21:16)
For all enquiries about the Ockham podcast, please contact Ben Gowland here.
Ben is joined once again by NHS pensions expert, Paul Gordon. Paul returns to the podcast to discuss new changes to the NHS pension scheme. Ben and Paul last spoke in December 2022 prior to the consultation taking place. The consultation completed at the end of January this year and as of the 7th March feedback has been shared. Paul communicates the outcome from the consultation and explains the proposed changes in relation to the flexibilities around retirement, tax charges and the impact of the changes on staff.
Introduction (0:09)
Consultation outcome.. (0:39)
Introducing new flexibilities to retirement.. (1:36)
How does this make things easier? (2:54)
Pensions and a full salary income.. (3:32)
Tax implications.. (4:56)
Lifetime allowance.. (8:02)
Total rewards statement.. (10:51)
How to calculate the best outcome for you? (13:11)
Changes to 24 hour retirement.. (16:39)
Risks in single handed practices and small practices.. (19:20)
Effects of inflation.. (22:06)
Widening the access to pension scheme (25:32)
When will the changes be applied? (27:41)
Accessing your Total Rewards Statement
To contact Paul directly: Paul.gordon@atomos.co.uk
For all enquiries about the Ockham podcast, please contact Ben Gowland here.
Dr George Gavriel, who is partner at the Swan Practice and Clinical Director of the Swan PCN, & Emma Vye who is Operations Manager at both Swan Practice and Swan PCN are guests on the podcast this week. Their practice is a single practice PCN and they join Ben to discuss their journey of moving into being stand alone. Ben gets an understanding of how the single practice and PCN works in terms of their resources, clinical delivery and management team. They discuss the ‘Gold card’ approach for clients who can be seen on the same day through a ‘same day service’ system. They reflect on how it has benefited them being an independent PCN and why others may or may not look into doing the same.
Introduction (0:09)
Where they’re located.. (0:25)
Single Practice PCN (0:41)
What was the rationale for you to work alone? (1:14)
Resistance from commissioners.. (2.27)
Benefits of being a single Practice & PCN? (3:06)
The shift into being a single Practice, Emma's perspective (4:21)
How does it work? (4:44)
How many sites do you have? (6:07)
Issues of allocating staff.. (7:26)
The fuller report.. (7:57)
Challenges of setting up the same day service? (9:38)
Staffing of the same day service.. (11:54)
Deploying ARS staff into the same day service.. (13:37)
Gold card.. (13:58)
Impact of the PCN & Practice (15:04)
Reflections of being a single Practice PCN.. (16:51)
Value of being independent? (19:24)
Contact details.. (22:05)
Contact George directly on george.gavriel@nhs.net.
For all enquiries about the Ockham podcast, please contact Ben Gowland here.