Improving Resilience
Are you feeling the pressure?
General Practice is in crisis and reaching breaking point because of the "intense" workload.
GPs routinely work over their contracted hours. Unfilled GP roles are scheduled to increase to 7,000. Almost half of GPs intend to retire before 60.
Many Practices are struggling to make the profit needed to retain, attract or develop partners and staff.
If General Practice fails, the entire NHS will collapse. When patients struggle to see their GP, work spills into unscheduled care settings such as hospital emergency departments.
To survive, to thrive, practices must become resilient.
We focus on improving the Resilience of General Practice
Resilience
Resilience is the capacity to withstand or
recover quickly from difficulties.
Within General Practice we need
to ensure we have
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Structural Resilience
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Financial Resilience
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Operational Resilience
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Clinical Resilience
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Workforce Resilience
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Personal Resilience
Services
Our focus is helping to improve the resilience of General Practice. The stakeholders who directly influence resilience are the individuals such as GPs and Managers, the Practice as a working entity, the Primary Care Network and the Integrated Care System / Integrated Care Board. We offer different services focused at each of these groups.
Integrated Care Boards (ICB)
The ICBs need their General Practices to be resilient in order to deliver the best possible care to the Practice patient cohort. Poor care puts pressure on the surrounding health economy. If a practice begins to fail then care begins to fail. When this happens, patients start calling ambulances more often and Emergency Departments will see an increase in patients that should have been seen by a GP.
Primary Care Networks (PCN)
PCNs need to be equally resilient. It is often challenging for GP partnerships to come to an agreement and for different partnerships to agree within a PCN is an even more interesting challenge. PCNs will either be the saviour of General Practice or the death of General Practice. To increase the chances of being the saviour, PCNs need to deliver ever-increasing value.
General Practices
Most General Practices, say they can't get GPs, and they can't get Nurses either. In fact, trying to attract any new member of staff is an uphill struggle. Interestingly, those Practices that are stable, that have the correct staffing levels and that have high partnership profits do not suffer anywhere near as much. We know Practices like this and they do attract partners, GPs and every other role. These Practices are resilient, they deliver great care and get paid for doing so. These Practices are resilient, they deliver great care and get paid for doing so. This drives staff retention and makes the Practice an attractive proposition for new staff.
We have supported vulnerable at risk Practices, we have helped those that have had CQC Section 31 Conditions, and have stepped in and provided interim management support.
We have helped with ARRS roles and the effective use of Clinical Pharmacists, Paramedics and Physician Associates. We have built models for homeworking clinicians and now looking at combining back office support.
We help improve every aspect of running a Practice. For example, we undertake a partnership attractiveness review that can be used to attract new partners. We improve income, help reduce costs and improve coding and the use of information. We have enhanced the recall system that reduces admin time by 80% and thereby increases QOF and income.
Case Studies
Various projects have been undertaken over the last few years and some of them have been briefly described below. The largest project required a team of 20 clinicians and management to help a Practice respond to their CQC Section 31 notice. The smallest projects required single-person support for Partners or Practice Management. The smallest project has been a 3-month Interim Practice Manager assignment and the largest has been a 2-year project with a large team. Projects have been funded directly by Practices and some funded by the CCGs (now ICBs). Many of the projects have been self-funding through the improvements that have been made to the Practice.
Select one of the case studies on the right for an overview of the Case Study
Our Core Team
The Core Team are the directors of General Practice Supporters Ltd. We have experience across all the functions of General Practice and we augment our skills and knowledge with other experienced General Practice resources.
Colin Wilson - Strategic Operational Consultant
BSc (Hons); C.Eng; MIET; FISM
Colin is an experienced and multi-skilled Manager. He is able to determine what needs doing, then design how to do it, and then get it done. Colin’s mix of customer-facing, NHS, finance and operational skills is a unique combination developed over many years.
Dr Catherine Bayliss - Clinical Operational Consultant
BM DCH DRCOG DFSRH MRCGP
Catherine is an experienced GP and worked as a Wessex LMC GP Supporter until the scheme closed in 2021. Her supporter work involved
going in and supporting practices that had approached the LMC for support. She supported practices throughout the Wessex LMC area and this work kindled her passion for supporting General Practice in this way.
Carolyn Hill - Finance Operational Consultant
Carolyn has over 25 years of experience as a Practice Manager and over 20 years as a partner. Every year she has increased both revenue and profits. The Practice accountants state that the Practice is a consistently high-earning Practice. They also have one of the largest workforces for their size of Practice.
Dr Dhani Virik - Clinical Operational Consultant
BMBS BSc MRCGP (2017)
Dhani is a General Practitioner with primary care experience across a wide range of demographics and populations. He has a strong focus on quality improvement within primary care, with an award-winning background in this area and has progressed to working on projects alongside Clinical Commissioning Groups (Integrated Care Boards).
Vicki Dennison - Practice Operational Consultant
Vicki has worked in General Practice since 2003 starting as a Medical Receptionist/Medical Secretary and learning all areas of General Practice including scanning, workflow, IT, QOF and finally Operational Management. While working at the Practice, she completed her Practice Managers Diploma and became the Deputy Practice /Operations Manager.