While the General Practice podcast is having a few week’s holiday (it will be back on the 29^th July), it is a good time to catch up on some of the episodes you may have missed.  The podcast started in 2016, and there are now over 170 episodes, so choosing the best ones might be a challenge!  To help you I’ve identified the 10 most downloaded episodes, as they may be a good place to start. Here, in traditional reverse order, are…

10. Marie-Anne Essam – Social Prescribing and Link Workers

In this episode, I spoke to Marie-Anne Essam a GP in Herts Valley and an enthusiastic ambassador for social prescribing. She explained what it is and told a powerful story about a patient of hers which amply illustrated the value of social prescription. She also talked about the specific role of link workers including their salary, their competences and their likely backgrounds.

9. Riaz Jetha – The new Primary Care Network DES

In the days immediately following the publication of the new network DES special guest Dr Riaz Jetha and I discussed the newly released specification. We looked at the nature of the network agreement, the role of federations, how clinical leaders were to be recruited, population size, funding and much more.

8. Neha Shah and Colin Haw – The practical implications of establishing PCNs

In this episode I was joined by Neha Shah, a Legal Director from Capsticks and Accountant Colin Haw from BHP Chartered Accountants.  They discussed some of the legal, financial and governance issues facing general practice as it began to establish Primary Care Networks. Specifically they considered how networks would be hosted and the implications for liability, choices around the organisational form, employment contracts, pensions and VAT.

7. Ben Gowland – The new GP contract

In this episode the tables were turned with me in the hot seat detailing the importance of the new GP contract. I explained, in the week after the publication of the new GP contract, why it is a huge opportunity and gave me optimism for the future. I described the way that the additional £2.8bn attached to the contract was expected to flow, how primary care networks were to be developed and how they would be staffed. I also gave some practical advice to practices about what they should be doing then, in preparation for the year ahead.

6. Ceinwen Mannall – Education for clinical pharmacists in general practice

In this episode I spoke to Ceinwen Mannall, who is the national lead for Clinical Pharmacists in General Practice education at the Centre for Postgraduate Pharmacy Education (CPPE).  She told me about the training available to pharmacists moving into general practice, the impact and value that pharmacists have and tips for practices thinking of employing a clinical pharmacist.

5. Tom Howseman – Better managing demand through pre-triage protocols

Tom Howseman is a GP Partner in a large urban practice in Northampton. When their complement of GP partners fell from twelve to six due to retirements and they couldn’t recruit they decided to adopt a more multi-disciplinary approach. Over the last two years they have introduced and refined a system of pre-triage protocols which enable reception staff to collect information from patients presenting on the day which is then helpful to the pre-triage clinicians in directing those patients to the appropriate member of the emergency care team. 20,000 additional appointments have been created through this system and in this episode Tom explained how they have done it.

4. Rachel Morris – GP stress, burnout and resilience

Rachel Morris is a GP, an executive coach and presenter with Red Whale; producers of the famous GP Update. In this episode she looked at GP resilience; what it is and how can you acquire it. She considered the causes of stress and burnout and pointed to a range of useful resources GPs can use to develop their personal resilience.

3. Nikki Kanani – The new GP Contract – Part 1

My special guest for two weeks in February/March this year was Dr Nikki Kanani, one of the chief architects of the new GP contract. Nikki is a GP in south-east London and is currently Director of Primary Care for NHS England. This is the first of two discussions with Nikki in the Top Ten and in this part, she explained the role of primary care networks in general practice and looked in detail at the funding behind the new contract. She explained how the money would be delivered and for what it would be made available including 20,000 new staff, support for clinical leadership and Investment in innovation.

2. Nikki Kanani – The new GP Contract – Part 2

In this second part of the interview with Dr Nikki Kanani she addressed the concerns of podcast listeners about primary care networks including population size, hosting of the networks and the role of federations. She looked at how clinical leaders should be identified and focused in detail on the timetable from March 2019 onwards and what practices should be doing at that time to guarantee success.

1. Rachel Morris – Developing GP leaders

Top of the pile, and more popular than even Nikki Kanani, sees the second entry for Dr Rachel Morris.  In this podcast Rachel described two courses that Red Whale were running aimed at developing leadership skills in primary care leaders. The first is Lead. Manage. Thrive! – a very popular one day course in management skills for GPs. The second wass a new course on Working At Scale. Rachel explained how and why the programmes were developed, who the training is aimed at and what the courses cover.

So that’s the current Top Ten. Don’t forget, if you’d like to see something featured in a future episode of the General Practice Podcast or you’ve got a story to tell yourself, just email me at ben@ockham.healthcare or DM me on Twitter @benxgowland and we’ll do the rest.