Blog 10- Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
Dr Sonali Kinra is our ICS lead for GP Retention. This is her monthly blog series where she gives an insight into her role and more.
I have tried to keep to monthly blogs since I began in my role as GP retention lead for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire in September 2019. This blog is later than usual in the month. This was as a result of me finally managing to take annual leave after 6 months. I hope you have planned some time off too during the summer to pause, breath and rejuvenate yourself.
Some of our GP trainees would’ve received their RCA results recently. For those of you who are due to complete their final few weeks of training and enter into the new world of independent General practitioner- please ensure you are linked in with Phoenix programme and Nottingham Alliance training hub who are collaborating to deliver the New to Practice Programme. The programme is for GPs and GPNs.
NHSE& I have also released details around New to Partnership scheme. If you wish to discuss the benefits of partnership please feel free to contact Phoenix Programme or Nottinghamshire LMC. We are also in the process of pulling together a programme for non-clinical partnership/business skills. Watch this space. The eligible list of professionals who can apply to the scheme is: General Practitioner, Nurse (including ANP), Pharmacist, Pharmacy Technician, Physiotherapist, Paramedic, Midwife, Dietitian, Podiatrist, Occupational Therapist, Mental Health Practitioner. NHSE also informs us that they are reviewing to include our well deserving Practice Managers- we will keep raising this.
We held our first virtual AiT trainee transition conference along with our colleagues from Phoenix Programme, RCGP Vale of Trent faculty and Derbyshire GP Taskforce earlier in the month. Seeing the feedback on social media it was very well received. You can view it here if you missed it.
I chaired the Primary Care workforce group meeting in the last week of the June followed by attending the Primary Care Transformation Group. The transformation group has representation across the system from federations, locality and Clinical directors. We continue to engage in informed discussions around funding plans and initiatives for 20/21 pending further financial information from the treasury and NHSE. I appreciate this can be frustrating but this hasn’t stopped us and we continue to fine tune our funding framework to ensure equitable allocation of funds based on need and must do’s from NHSE and HEE. We will soon be piloting our PCN portfolio roles and are adding our final touches on GPN leadership programme and hope to get out expression of interest forms out to you soon.
Health Education England (HEE) has released a video on training hub explaining what they do. Our local training hub is Nottinghamshire Alliance of training hub(NATH) . They have been engaging recently with General Practice and PCNs for training need analysis for nurses and AHPs to assess and provide future training and CPD opportunities.
Hussain Ghandi and Andy Foster are hosting an NHS ‘Digital First’ Providers Guide. Dr Gandhi and Dr Minal Bakhai (Deputy Director and National Clinical Lead for Digital First Primary care NHSE/I) will speak with representatives from AccuRx, AskMyGP, eConsult, Engage Consult, Klinik and TPP SystmOne about their digital-first offerings for primary care. This virtual event takes place on 29 July at 12.30. They are also hosting a System One User Conference on the 24th July. You can find all the information you need about the conference here.
Dr Jasjit Kaur Atwal (GP working in Nottingham City) has been working tirelessly behind the scenes for the last 2 years increasing the profile and discussion around Gender and Ethnicity pay gap. Pending the imminent release of the Gender Pay Gap in Medicine review, commissioned by DHSC , she has now set up a formal space on MS teams for share insights into lived experiences of pay gaps ,exploring impact of intersectionality and bring these to experts in field of NHS pay gaps to offer evidence and experience based solutions. General practice perspective is unique and with a sizeable pay gap. If you are interested in engaging in this crucial topic then please email Jasjit.atwal@nhs.net
Robana Hussain Mills alongwith Aquline Chivinge have established a forum for nurses and midwives from Black, Asian and minority ethnic background (BAME)for primary and secondary care. If you wish to join in please email robana.hussain-mills@nhs.net
I found this reflective blog on racism and meaningful actions by Dr Mariya Aziz & Dr Tom Ratcliffe particularly helpful with useful resources to further raise awareness. A few of us have recently come together to set up Notts Primary Care working group for Racial Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. There is now a formal space on MS teams to learn together, raise awareness and shape the working group to address various strands of structural inequalities around leadership opportunities, differential attainment and health inequalities. If you are interested in joining in the conversation then please get in touch with me via email Sonali.kinra@nhs.net.
Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice and Belonging is having that voice to be heard.
Until Next time
Sonali
@SonaliKinra