Two years ago we spoke to Chris Ash from Southern Health in Hampshire. Southern Health are a NHS Foundation Trust running community services and when we last spoke they were working with general practice in the county as a vanguard developing a Multi-Specialty Community Provider model. Two years on and nothing has quite proceeded as Chris predicted. In this fascinating episode Chris describes progress in the partnership - with all its highs and lows.

This week we return to Helen Parker and her fascinating insights into general practice half way round the world. Helen has, for the past four years, worked in New Zealand for the Pinnacle network of GP practices and this is the second part of an interview that we began in Episode 64. In this part Helen goes into more detail about the structured model of general practice they are introducing in New Zealand; how it is being implemented and what it means for patient and staff satisfaction.

Jon Griffiths is the GP Chair of Vale Royal CCG in Cheshire. In this podcast he outlines the work being undertaken to break down the barriers between GPs and hospital consultants and to re-establish the traditional relationships that appear to have been severed for a variety of reasons. Finding that the emerging relationships are building new levels of trust and understanding Jon looks forward to the potential development of an accountable care system.

This week we have a three-way conversation on the principles and practicalities of how to make collaborative working between practices happen. In one corner of the triangle we have Richard Taunt from Kaleidoscope Health and Care. Kaleidoscope is a social enterprise aiming to improve health through effective collaboration. In the second corner sits Ben Gowland who runs Ockham Healthcare, a consultancy supporting innovation in general practice and finally, pulling the conversation together is Robert McCartney of McCartney Healthcare Associates, experts in mergers and federation development. Struggling with collaboration in your area? Listen out for news about an exciting new six month training programme that could offer all the support and skills that you need.

Last August we spoke to Tracey Vell, Manchester GP and LMC Lead about the integration of services in Manchester as they piloted the draft contract for Multi-speciality Community Providers. Nine months on Ben catches up with Tracey to talk about their continuing progress; about the philosophy and the model they are adopting, about the impact felt by individual practices and about some of the key lessons they are learning.

Dillon Sykes is the Managing Director of Productive Primary Care Ltd, a GP-led consultancy most famous for its Doctor First product. Doctor First is a demand-led appointment system where clinicians talk to all patients before the decision to offer an appointment is made. In this podcast Dillon tells Ben how the system works, the practices for whom it might work best and the ways in which it can be adapted.

Could the way general practice operates on the other side of the world teach us anything about general practice in Britain? In this podcast (the first in a pair) Ben talks to Helen Parker who was an experienced nurse, manager and academic in England but who has, for the past four years, worked in New Zealand for the Pinnacle network of GP practices. In this podcast Helen discusses how the non-statutory nature of the network influences the way it works, how co-payments in NZ operate and what of this, if anything, might work in the UK.

Nish Manek is a GP trainee. She is also, for this year, on the prestigious National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow scheme – which is designed to fast track doctors in training “…who present with the clearest potential to develop as medical leaders of the future”. In this role she is spending 12 months working alongside Dr Arvind Madan, NHS England’s Director of Primary Care. In this podcast Nish eloquently and enthusiastically advocates for general practice as a career and outlines her hopes and expectations for the future. She explains the benefits of being on the Clinical Fellow scheme and talks about Next Generation GP, the programme she has co-developed for aspiring leaders in general practice.

Implementing active signposting into a practice can divert up to 25% of GP appointments away from GPs and on to other appropriate health services. This is the claim made by Nick Sharples of DNA Insight, the company that runs the “Reception Plus” training programme for care navigators. In this podcast Nick explains how active signposting works and how it can be implemented into a practice. He also touches on reducing DNAs, another strand of his company’s work.

Rebecca Thomas is the Health Service Journal’s lead reporter for primary care. In this podcast Ben reverses traditional roles and questions the questioner. Rebecca tells Ben about how her stories are pursued and put together, she give advice for GPs in dealing with the media and she looks forward to the likely focus of journalistic interest in the coming months.