We all know what general practice is trying to move away from (a crisis), but where is it going?

Anger, irritation, fear, or frustration with the current situation can be a great motivator to get change started, and provide an initial impetus to motivate a practice to take action. But if your only motivation is ‘away-from’ the current crisis, then your attention is consistently drawn to the negatives in your experience, filtering out the positives in the process.

It is also not sufficient motivation for sustainable change. For example, if a GP’s goal is ‘not to be in crisis’ (by their own definition of the term), then they have achieved this goal when they reach the level they decree to mean ‘not being in crisis’. They then lose a significant portion of their motivation so run the risk of dropping back down to a point at which they become motivated by their ‘moving away from being in crisis’ goal again. ‘Moving away-from’ goals produce inconsistent motivation levels which are rarely satisfying at any stage.

Sustainable change requires an element of ‘towards’ motivation as well; a vision of where you want to get to. Creating a vision based on aspirations and positivity and not on barriers or avoidance is both empowering and inspiring.

Where is the vision for the future of general practice? I don’t think it really exists. The GP Forward View seems to be more a public acknowledgement of the challenges general practice is facing while ploughing on with extending access, rather than the development of an inspiring picture of what is to come. So here at Ockham Healthcare (with help from whoever will give it!) we aim to put that right. We want to help build excitement and anticipation about the future of general practice, and to shift the focus from the crisis around and behind us, to an inspiring and attractive future ahead.

To kick this off we are holding a series of interactive sessions with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in general practice. We are exploring with them some of the key changes they believe will impact the future of general practice. We will distil the key lessons, and capture the learning as a resource to enable GPs and practices to prepare for what lies ahead.

We are going to consider four questions:

1. How will technology shape the future of general practice?
2. What will the infrastructure of general practice look like in 5 years’ time?
3. How will the new models of care change general practice?
4. What do GPs (of the future) want?

We recently held the first of these panels, to discuss the technology question. You can listen to the first part of the discussion here. We will publish the second part in a few weeks’ time.

What is already clear from our first panel is there are huge changes on the horizon. There is an opportunity for general practice to embrace these changes and use them to create a future that will enable a greater focus on prevention, on building patient ownership and control of their health and their illness, on a new partnership between doctors and patients, and on new treatment opportunities (e.g. the use of virtual reality in pain management).

Finding a way out of crisis is not a plan for general practice. It is the start of the journey, but to ensure it doesn’t peter out there needs to be a vision, a future, a picture of what it will be like. Our aim, starting with these panels, is to help paint that picture.