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Do GP practices have to sacrifice their values if they want to grow in size?  Not according to Sheinaz Stansfield who shares with Ben the remarkable story of how her Practice increased in size and used the power of social prescribing to positively impact on their patients’ lives.

This week Ben talks to Sheinaz Stansfield, Practice Manager at Oxford Terrace and Rawling Road Medical Group in Gateshead. The interview begins about achieving greater scale and how merging with another local practice secured their future. But when Sheinaz begins to explain the Practice’s approach to “social prescribing” we enter a world where a Christmas Lunch for vulnerable people and the organisation of a tea-dance become part of an even brighter future for the Practice and its patients.

Show Notes

Sheinaz describes the practice and its population (1min 07secs)

Using the introduction of “quality accounts” to develop the practice (1min 58secs)

The decision to get bigger (3mins 05secs)

Why bigger? (3mins 37secs)

Taking on eight care homes and beginning integrated working (4mins 10secs)

Merging with a struggling practice (6mins 40secs)

“Courting” the struggling practice (7mins 30secs)

Genuinely engaging the local population (8mins 10secs)

Being in hospital at Christmas inspires a new approach to identifying and supporting elderly and vulnerable patients (8mins 40secs)

Volunteers galvanised to organise a Christmas dinner (9mins 40secs)

The volunteers bring a wealth of expertise to the practice – for free (11mins 10secs)

The value added by the volunteers multiplies (12mins 30secs)

Any costs are balanced by the value they add (13mins 30secs)

What is social prescribing? (15mins 25secs)

Social prescribing and its impact on GPs (16mins 03secs)

The new approach attracts resource (16mins 10secs)

Launching the long-term conditions strategy…via a tea-dance (16mins 40secs)

Alternative resources for those with long-term conditions (18mins 30secs)