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.

Can fundamental change in General Practice be achieved by changing the contracting model? Will the use of other professionals achieve major efficiencies? Reform the public sector think tank believe so and have published “Who Cares; The Future of General Practice” to set out their “blue print for best practice”. In this bonus edition of our podcast, Ben Gowland talks to Alex Hitchcock, one of the report’s authors.

Digital health technologies could dramatically change the relationships between clinicians and patients and support the shift towards prevention. Ben interviews Maneesh Juneja, internationally lauded expert in digital health to determine whether the advent of this brave new world is a promise or a threat.

Can technology help GPs better manage on-the-day demand? Ben talks to Harry Longman, founder and Chief Executive of GP Access, about how telephone consulting and online algorithms can dramatically support practices in reducing the pressures of seemingly uncontrollable demand.