This week we’re bringing you some highlights from our top interviews of 2023 - and we’ve had some really fantastic guests this year.

In this episode you’ll hear from BMA GP committee for England chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, Royal College of GPs chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne, NHS England director for health inequalities Professor Bola Owolabi, RCGP Wales chair Dr Rowena Christmas and all-round general practice expert and fellow podcast host Ben Gowland.

And between them they’ll be talking about GP contract negotiations, continuity of care, what we can do to retain more GPs, influencing politicians in the run up to next year’s general election, the difference healthcare professionals can make on health inequalities, and the future of primary care networks.

Thanks to everyone who’s taken part in Talking General Practice during 2023 - and happy new year to all of our listeners!

Don’t forget you can listen to the full versions of all these interviews - and interviews with lots of other brilliant people from the world of primary care by searching in our podcast feed or on our website at GPonline.com/podcast

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This week Emma and Nick look at what happens next for the quality and outcomes framework after the government launched its consultation on the future of incentive payments in general practice. They talk about what the consultation is asking and whether this could mean the end of the QOF?

And they discuss an ageing GP workforce and what it means for the stability of GP practices in some parts of England.

They also look ahead to next year and some of the key news stories that are likely to be important in 2024.

Our good news story this week is about a Christmas delivery to a practice in Shropshire.

Merry Christmas to all of our listeners.

Useful links

Government QOF consultation asks if continuity and access should be incentivised

Hundreds of practices on the brink as half their GPs are over retirement age

Which ICBs have most GP practices at risk from an ageing workforce?

Patient safety fears as one in three practice nurses near retirement

GP practice staff moved to tears as patients deliver Christmas tree gift

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This week Emma speaks to Dr Sylvia Kama-Kieghe, a GP from Sheffield who is vice chair of the RCGP South Yorkshire and North Trent Faculty and a chair of the RCGP Northern Faculties International Medical Graduate steering group.

They talk about the challenges that international medical graduates - or IMG - GPs face and what the NHS and general practice can do to support them.

Around half of the doctors who enter GP training each year are now IMGs, which means they received their initial medical qualification outside the UK.

Sylvia herself qualified as a doctor in Nigeria. In this episode she talks about her own move to the UK in 2004, and some of the difficulties IMG doctors face in the UK, including racism, long-standing problems related to visas and the challenges of practising medicine in a completely different country and culture.

She also explains why the RCGP Northern Faculties IMG steering group was set up and what it is hoping to achieve, and offers some practical advice on how practices can best support IMG doctors. It was produced by Czarina Deen

Useful links

IMG group on the RCGP members’ forum

E-learning for health’s guide to induction for IMG doctors

RCGP overseas doctors guide

BMA guide on becoming a tier 2 sponsor for GP practices

NHS guide for IMG doctors

Most regions of Health Education England will have information for IMG doctors working in their area , including:

Yorkshire and the Humber - you can find the IMG guidebook that Sylvia mentioned in the podcast here

East of England

London

North West

South West

Information from Health Education Scotland

Information from Health Education and Improvement Wales

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This week Emma and Nick look at what we know about what the BMA in England might be looking to achieve in contract negotiations, how the current deal that’s on the table for consultants could affect talks, and whether continuity should be a contractual requirement.

They also discuss Labour’s plan for neighbourhood health centres and what the party might want them to achieve.

Our good news story this week is about a British GP's success Down Under.

This episode was presented by GPonline editor Emma Bower and deputy editor Nick Bostock. It was produced by Czarina Deen.

Useful links

What questions is the BMA asking GPs to shape its vision for general practice?

Next GP contract 'must signal hope', GP committee chair warns

Government must match consultants' pay offer in new contract for GPs

Labour plans neighbourhood walk-in GP centres open seven days a week

New contract that enforces continuity would make GPs and patients safer, says watchdog

GP conquers 'Everest of competitive mullet growing'

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Emma talks to GPs Dr Beckie Akroyd and Dr Catherine Bell about neurodiversity in the medical profession and what general practice can do to better support doctors and other staff who are neurodivergent.

Beckie is the GP Lead for Autistic Doctors International, a support and advocacy organisation, and until recently Catherine was an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Fellow for Derbyshire’s GP Task Force focusing on supporting neurodivergent staff working in general practice.

Beckie and Catherine talk about their own experiences of being neurodivergent, the challenges neurodivergent doctors can face, including stigma, and why it is important that we frame neurodiversity positively and focus on what people can do rather than what they can’t.

Beckie and Catherine also have lots of practical tips for practices on how they can support neurodivergent staff and advice for anyone listening who may be neurodivergent about how to approach conversations with your employer and places to get additional support.

This episode was presented by GPonline editor Emma Bower. It was produced by Czarina Deen.

Useful links

Autistic Doctors International

Access to Work support

Society of Occupational Medicine: Evaluating and supporting neurodifferences at work

Catherine’s article on neurodiversity in the general practice workforce - available for RCGP members

Acas - Neurodiversity at work

Beckie and Catherine’s full Linktree with links to all the resources they recommended during their talk at the RCGP conference.

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Emma and Nick look at the current state of the GP workforce and changes over the past year. We’ve just undertaken a major update of GPonline’s GP Workforce Tracker, which we launched a year ago, and Nick talks through some of the key findings from that work.

They talk about the uplift to the minimum wage that is due to happen in April and what this will mean for practice, and discuss GP premises, in particular some of the problems relating to funding reaching practices when there are housing developments in their area.

And, following the recent cabinet reshuffle, they look at the arrival of a new secretary of state at the Department of Health and Social Care and what this could mean in the months ahead.

Our good news story is about NHS England’s pledge to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040.

This episode was presented by GPonline editor Emma Bower and deputy editor Nick Bostock. It was produced by Czarina Deen.

Useful links

GPonline’s GP Workforce Tracker

Where in England are patients per GP rising fastest?

GPs fear practice closures as minimum wage hike threatens major rise in costs

Chancellor to investigate delays in GP premises funding from housing development

Who is new health and social care secretary Victoria Atkins?

NHS England sets target to eliminate cervical cancer

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Emma speaks to Dr Sarah Taylor and Dr Rebecca Leon, who are GPs with a special interest in cancer, about early cancer diagnosis.

Both Sarah and Rebecca have portfolio careers and one of their roles is as GP leads at GatewayC, an organisation backed by the NHS in England and Wales and leading cancer charities that is aiming to boost early cancer diagnosis. As part of this work they host the GPs Talk Cancer podcast.

In this conversation Sarah and Rebecca explain how the pandemic and the current backlog of care have impacted on cancer diagnosis and treatment, whether the NHS can hit ambitious targets on early cancer diagnosis, and what recent changes to national targets mean.

We also talk about inequalities in early cancer diagnosis, new tests to detect cancer early, and the importance of screening. Rebecca and Sarah also have some practical advice based on their own experiences and conversations with experts that can help GPs ensure they don’t miss a cancer diagnosis.

This episode was presented by GPonline editor Emma Bower. It was produced by Czarina Deen.

Useful links

●     GatewayC

●     GPs Talk Cancer podcast

●     The NHS Galleri trial

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This week on the podcast Emma and Nick talk about physician associates after the BMA GP committee in England voted in favour of a strongly worded motion that called for an immediate freeze on recruiting these roles in general practice. They also look at plans for regulating PAs by the GMC, which is also causing concern in the medical profession.

They also discuss the RCGP’s new definition of what a GP is, and they look ahead to the England local medical committee conference at the end of this month and some of the motions relating to the GP contract that are up for debate.

Our good news story this week is about prescribing of DOACs in primary care and the impact this has had on stroke prevention.

This episode was presented by GPonline editor Emma Bower and deputy editor Nick Bostock. It was produced by Czarina Deen.

Useful links

BMA demands halt to 'increasing trend' of PAs substituting GPs

​​Doctors warn GMC plans to regulate physician associates are 'unsafe'

Supervising physician associates – what GPs need to know - advice from the MDU

GPs are 'consultants in general practice', says RCGP

GP prescribing shift has stopped thousands of strokes, says NHS chief

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Emma speaks to Surrey GPs Dr Gillian Orrow, Dr Tabassum Siddiqui and Dr Richard Wright, about how a programme called Growing Health Together, which Gillian co-founded, is helping general practice and other partners in the local health system to tackle health inequalities.

One of the key aims of Growing Health Together is to create a more sustainable health and care system, by reducing demand in primary and secondary care through health creation, prevention, and early intervention.

It is based on the idea of health creation and this episode looks at what health creation is, some of the local schemes that Growing Health Together has helped to establish and how this is all benefiting local people.

Gillian, Tabassum and Richard also explain how this work fits in with what their primary care networks are trying to achieve and the value of GPs having funded time to spend in their local communities to help understand the challenges some of their patients face and work out solutions that can help.

This episode was presented by GPonline editor Emma Bower and produced by Czarina Deen.

Useful links

Growing Health Together

The YouTube video explaining some of the work Growing Health Together is doing is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfW5cjpvklU

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Emma and Nick reflect on last week’s RCGP annual conference, in particular the details of the college’s manifesto to save general practice and the Labour party’s reaction to it.

They look ahead to what might happen to the GP contract in England as we come towards the end of the current five-year deal, as well as discuss pay rises for practice nurses and the collapse of contract talks in Wales. And they look at online access to patient records, a contractual requirement in England that comes into effect next week, and some of the concerns around this.

Our good news story this week is about patient satisfaction with access to general practice.

This episode was presented by GPonline editor Emma Bower and deputy editor Nick Bostock. It was produced by Czarina Deen.

Useful links

Read all the news from the RCGP conference here

General practice could see 'new contract for a generation' from 2028

ARRS model should be 'turned on its head', says BMA GP leader

Unions warn not all GP practices can afford 6% staff pay rise

General practice in Wales 'at risk of collapse' after contract talks break down

Remote access to GP records risks domestic abuse survivors' safety, BMA warns

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