Cain Hunt Recruit for character not for skills This will be a person who will work with you long-term and who will become part of your inner circle, your team. Who they are is more important than what they know. As well as the obvious integrity, courage, humility and honour you should look for someone who increases … Read more
Throughout my career people have been telling me that Partnerships and Personal General Practice were doomed. They said I couldn’t just carry on being a local GP and needed to be absorbed into a big organisation which would run things because that was more efficient. Being somewhat sceptical, we decided to carry on as we … Read more
Everyone knows how a Finite Game works. Like a football or tennis match, you know the players, how to score and how long it will last. The game finishes, a winner is announced, and the players go on to new games. An Infinite Game(*) is different. Players come and go, and your objective is to … Read more
If you’ve never thought about this, or not thought about it recently, then maybe you should. A lot of our successes and problems come as a result of our own actions so how will we choose wisely if we have not thought about what we want? These desires are intensely personal and yours will differ … Read more
In General Practice (and other parts of the Health Service) there is a natural circle of Need and Capacity. When there is unmet need it shows up as Demand and this is what usually drives increases in Capacity. However, there is a delay while capacity meets the need and politically it may be tempting to … Read more
Coronavirus has probably done General Practice a favour. Of course it has been hard and scary being on the front line when the entire country is in free fall trying to cope with something which reaches to the core of our society. But rarely has there been a disease which has forced the NHS to … Read more
There is no doubt that General Practice has changed remarkably since the start of March Use of telephone and video consultations have become the norm. All calls are triaged. Practices are routinely open on Bank Holidays. There has been a dramatic reduction in use of locums. Local support groups have been mobilised. But these have … Read more
Primary Care is what we do – it is our core function and doing other things will not let us off the hook if we fail to provide Primary Care to our patients.Primary Care is that care which can be provided by a Doctor (along with their support team) to their own patients. This stops … Read more
It seems like lots of people know how to “fix” General Practice They know that units of 5-10k customers are inefficient and should be merged They know that uniformity and standardisation are the key to providing quality They know that big businesses are better than small businesses because they can afford better everything They know … Read more
It is trendy to talk about moving away from “old fashioned” GP receptionists towards call centres or even computerised phone systems and apps. Economies of scale and the efficiencies of not having staff idle between calls seem to support this industrialisation of Primary Care. 24-hour call centres promise better access and allow staff to be … Read more