RCGP eLearning Podcast

Dr Ollie Hart, GP, PCN Clinical Director, Clinical Commissioning Lead for Person Centred Care at Sheffield CCG and passionate exponent of personalised care, discusses the benefits for individual patients, health professionals and the whole system.

Resources mentioned in the podcast

NHS England (2019) Universal Personalised Care Implementing the Comprehensive Model 

Peak Health Coaching 

Nesta (2016) Ten actions to put people and communities at the heart of health and wellbeing 

The Health Foundation 

National Voices 

Dr Nicky Turner, GP in Buckinghamshire and Clinical Director for the Chalfonts PCN reflects on her personal leadership journey, and discusses some of the opportunities and challenges facing all clinical directors.  This podcast was recorded prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Resources mentioned in the podcast.

BMA PCN site Ockham Healthcare

The King's Fund (2020) How to build effective teams in general practice 

Developing a coaching mindset at your PCNDr Tim Williams GP, coach and author discusses the value of coaching for leadership development both for individual PCN leaders, teams and the whole organisation. Resources mentioned in the podcast

NHS Leadership Academy Coaching & Mentoring. Programmes 

A brief introduction to population health for Primary Care Networks (PCN) from Dr Kathrin Thomas a GP and Consultant in Public Health.  The discussion includes a clear explanation of what a population health approach means, how it can address health inequalities and improve the health of your PCN population, and some practical suggestions as to how this might be achieved. Resources mentioned in the podcast

Kings Fund  

Short video 

Public Health England: All Our Health: personalised care and population health 

Wales: Primary Care One website 

Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)   

Health Knowledge: collection of resources on public health 

In this podcast, Dr Helen Howells, a GP with a special interest in Allergy, and Dr Dirk Pilat discuss aspects of atopy management during lockdown. Topics include hayfever, anosmia, weaning, adrenaline auto-injectors and service provision.

Reviewed and updated: February 2024

This podcast is hosted by Dr Emma Nash, a GP and RCGP eLearning Development Fellow and Dr Barbara McGowan, a Consultant and Honorary Reader in Endrocrinology.

The podcast topic is overweight and obesity. It focuses on the illnesses in the context of COVID-19, but also explores their importance in the context of other health conditions and their impact on the health care system and population needs.

Many of our patients are very anxious at the moment; in the worst case scenario this anxiety can manifest as apparent shortness of breath and affect your clinical assessment. In this episode we discuss how to address these issues, what we can say to patients to help and the use of communication skills and empathy in these difficult consultations.

This is episode 4 in a series about telephone triage during COVID-19.

Aimed at those coming back to triage after a break, this episode discusses new technology such as video calls and techniques to get started again, such as the golden minute. We also talk about the adaptation of basic communication skills to the triage call and how to handle the patient’s ideas, concerns and expectations.

Reviewed and updated: October 2025

This introductory episode discusses telephone triage from the perspective of a doctor who is new to it. We discuss how to set up a session of telephone triage to maximise success, how to structure and document the call and how to safety net. Some groups of patients can be particularly challenging and we talk about how to manage these challenges and how to know when triage won’t work and the patient has to be seen.

Reviewed and updated: October 2025

This episode focuses specifically on triaging a patient with possible COVID-19, including a discussion about how to carry out a verbal examination and what red flags to look for. It also discusses how to assess shortness of breath on the phone, which is a particular challenge for patients who may have COVID-19. 

This is episode 3 in a series about telephone triage during COVID-19.