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Could the way general practice operates on the other side of the world teach us anything about general practice in Britain? In this podcast (the first in a pair) Ben talks to Helen Parker who was an experienced nurse, manager and academic in England but who has, for the past four years, worked in New Zealand for the Pinnacle network of GP practices. In this podcast Helen discusses how the non-statutory nature of the network influences the way it works, how co-payments in NZ operate and what of this, if anything, might work in the UK.

Show Notes

Helen describes how her career in the NHS led to her move to New Zealand (50secs)

The key differences (and similarities) between general practice in the UK and NZ (2min 25secs)

Could co-payments work in this country? (3mins 32secs)

The impact that co-payments have on patients and practices (4mins 25secs)

The negatives of co-payment (4mins 55secs)

Co-payment makes it difficult to introduce new ways of working (5mins 26secs)

Networks – non-statutory Primary Health Organisations (6mins 41secs)

Merging the functions of the CQC, the support of a federation and part of the commissioning role of the CCG (8mins 02secs)

Governance and conflict of interests (9mins 45secs)

The networks assure quality (11mins 30secs)

The benefits to a practice of being in a network (12mins 39secs)

The size of a network (14mins)

Could the non-statutory network model work in the UK? (14mins 53secs)

Organisational structure should not be the focus (16mins 21secs)

Inviting Helen for Part Two… (17mins 57secs)