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The King’s Fund have today (5^th May) published their report “Understanding 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?

Show Notes

The report is aimed at policy makers and aims to illuminate the current picture of General Practice (36secs)

The report is seeking to generate positive change (1mins 11secs)

Do the movers and shakers believe that the crisis exists? (1mins 36secs)

The report shows that activity has gone up more than was previously believed (2mins 02secs)

How do we explain the rise in activity? (2mins 47secs)

Should the amount of money GPs receive go up accordingly? (3mins 19secs)

Isn’t it all about funding? (3mins 39secs)

Is the new money announced in the GP Forward View sufficient? (4mins 18secs)

There has been a growth in the GP workforce – but not enough (4mins 59secs)

Solving the current recruitment crisis (5mins 45secs)

The impact of part-time working (6mins 37secs)

Part-time working to cope with the pressure (7mins 23secs)

What should we do about the crisis? (8mins 14secs)

Is working at greater scale the way forward? (9mins 06secs)

Is integration the way forward? (10mins 13secs)

Isn’t the lack of time for GPs the big barrier to change? (11mins 14secs)

Should CCGs be seconding their GP leaders into the development of General Practice? (12mins 14secs)

Does the GP Forward View solve the problems? (13mins 04secs)

What should an “average” Practice be doing now? (14mins 01secs)

What should Jeremy Hunt do now? (14mins 54secs)

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

Show Notes

The GP Forward View – opportunity or threat? (54 secs)

What does the extra money mean for practices? (1min 35secs)

Recurrent money that practices can access (2mins 39secs)

7 day working not compulsory (3mins 08secs)

Is capital money available? (4mins 06secs)

Relaxing the rules on accessing capital (4mins 36secs)

Availability of non-recurrent money (5mins 25secs)

Practices need to pursue the right “pot” of money (5mins 55secs)

Investing in GPs suffering from burn-out (6mins 25secs)

Money for workforce and recruitment (6mins 39secs)

Introducing 5000 non-GPs to the workforce (7mins 09secs)

Extending the scheme to support recruitment of pharmacists (7mins 30secs)

£45m to introduce on-line consultations (8mins 08secs)

£30m to support access (8mins 40secs)

Are costs likely to go down as a result of the Forward View? (8mins 52secs)

Reducing the costs of bureaucracy (9mins 28secs)

Changing the frequency of CQC inspections (10mins 08secs)

The decisions practices need to be making now (10mins 37secs)

Getting more information (12mins 04secs)

Ockham Healthcare has a blog on the finances relating to the Forward View and his can be accessed here.

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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.

Show Notes

Alex explains the aims of the Reform report (44secs)

The report aims to set out a blue print for best practice (1min 06secs)

Reforms view of the problems in General Practice (1mins 40secs)

Do GPs feel the problems differently? (2mins 07secs)

Fundamentally changing the model (3mins 01secs)

Abandoning the target for 5000 new GPs (3mins 30secs)

Using other professions to plug the gap and make efficiencies (4mins 19secs)

How do you preserve continuity of care? (5mins 35secs)

How do you deliver the efficiencies? (7min 16secs)

Other professionals delivering appointments will achieve efficiencies (8mins 17 secs)

Creating new contracts to emphasise prevention (8mins 52 secs)

The Valencia model of integrated care (9mins 59secs)

The example of Lakeside in Corby delivering wider care (11mins 12secs)

Can change be delivered via contracting? (12mins 01secs)

A new role for commissioners? (12mins 37secs)

Are federations “old wine in new bottles”? (13mins 38secs)

How best can we deliver change? (15mins 16secs)

Private investment in primary care (16mins 06secs)

Does general practice have the capacity for change? (16mins 30secs)

Practice leadership from individuals with a business background (17mins 07secs)

The report is available from www.reform.co.uk (17mins 48secs)