Continuing our mini-series of podcasts looking at other professional roles in General Practice, Ben talks to Dr Neil Langridge who is a Consultant Physiotherapist in a GP practice. He tells Ben about his role and the positive impact that it has had on patients and the GP workload.

In the second of his audio blogs, Ben Gowland argues that General Practice really needs help in navigating a route through the post-GP Forward View world. Read more of Ben's blogs on our website at http://ockham.healthcare/category/the-general-practice-blog/ 

This week we are trying something new and would like your view on whether we continue. This is our first audio blog in which Ben Gowland has just four minutes to argue that rather than sitting in CCGs, GP leaders should be out supporting the development of core general practice.

Ben talks to Dr Maureen Baker, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners about the future of collaborative working and the role of General Practice in the integration agenda. In a wide-ranging discussion following the recent publication of an RCGP report on the subject, she also touches on the GP Forward View, the future of the GP partner model and the idea of practices working at scale.

Wow! What an inspiring podcast we have this week as Ben talks to pharmacist Karen Acott. Karen was the country’s first ever pharmacist partner in a GP practice in 2004 and is now Chairman of a major GP federation in Devon. She tells Ben about the value to a practice of employing a pharmacist and provides inspiration to all professionals working in primary care.

With the Bolton Quality Contract, Bolton CCG has invested an additional £3m in General Practice and provided a guaranteed income per patient. In turn this has helped them to tackle some of their most pressing problems including access and the patient experience through incentives for the delivery of a set of agreed standards. The contract has been a huge success and effectively funded itself in the first year. Ben talks to Su Long, the Accountable Officer at Bolton CCG, to understand more about how the contract was developed, how it works and how its success is being measured.

Our Health Partnership in Birmingham is the biggest GP partnership in the UK covering 32 practices, 150 partners and a population of 280,000. Ben talks to Managing Director Dr Mark Newbold in the second of our podcast series tracking the progress of OHP, and discovers how the partnership works, what the benefits are and what lessons have been learnt so far.

The King’s Fund have today (5th May) published their report “Understanding the Pressures in General Practice”. In a bonus episode of his popular podcast, Ben Gowland speaks to Beccy Baird, a Fellow in Health Policy and one of the authors of the report. What does the report tell us about the current state of General Practice – and will anyone listen?

The recently published GP Forward View appears to presentpractices with a number of opportunities. What does a practice needto do to access a share of the £2.4bn available? Ben Gowlanddiscusses the various “pots” of money that are being released andurges practices to prepare well in advance.

When 87 practices get together to work at a truly mammoth scale, what benefits can accrue? How does communication work and what problems can occur? Ben talks to John Tacchi, CEO of Birmingham Integrated General Practice (BIG Practice) and finds out whether BIG is beautiful.