Dr Sonali Kinra is our ICS lead for GP Retention. This is the fifth of her monthly blog series where she looks at a range of meetings, conferences and events that have happened since the New Year.
Hi everyone – first some personal news from me. After 10 years of working as General Practitioner in Nottinghamshire I have now moved my clinical work to London due to a change in personal circumstances. I continue in my role as GP retention lead for the ICS for one day per week which will see me travelling back to Nottingham regularly so if you wish to meet, chat to discuss anything related to GP careers, workforce, retention then please get in touch.
It’s February and the festive season already seems long gone by. Thank you to all of you who continued to work in and out of hours during the holiday season – the workload has been relentless.
In addition to the other winter viruses we are also now facing global emergency due to Coronavirus and there are regular updates on Public Health England (PHE) website as well as on Clarity Teamnet. If you are doctor/nurse/AHP working in Nottinghamshire and not already on Teamnet ask your practice to sign you up or if working as a Locum then submit your application here for approval.
For the first part in January I was away on annual leave but continued to keep a tab on the feedback that was being generated on PCN DES specifications. NHSE received 4000 responses to the draft consultation which is summarised here and we hope to receive a positive outcome after their negotiations and discussion with GPC on 6 February – watch this space.
Nottinghamshire LMC also held its second sessional subcommittee meeting on 20 January which unfortunately I could not attend. Most people who attended the first meeting turned up along with some new faces. They had a presentation from Dr Richard Fieldhouse Chairman of NASGP @rafieldhouse on Locum chambers. They also discussed enhanced services harmonisations, IR35 changes, pension issues. Dr Kalindi Tumurugoti @KalindiKrishna is leading on this – please contact him if you wish to be a part of this group at kalindi76@gmail.com.
On 23 January I chaired the monthly primary care workforce group (PCWG) meeting which has representation from Nottinghamshire LMC, sessional sub committee, phoenix programme, training hub, HEE, primary care development centre and primary care networks. We received updates from each of the stakeholders and happy to report that we now have 17 (newly qualified and new to practice) nurses who will be taking part in the fundamental programme by De Montfort university and also 4 nurses who will be working with Connected Notts to be GPN Digital nurse champion (1 session/week) to share learning and embed technology enabled care services into practice.
We also discussed the risks within the system around GPN leadership which I will be escalating further through primary care delivery board (PCDB).
There are now 98 GPs/trainees registered with the Phoenix programme and supporting them with various modalities such as fellowship lite, signposting to salaried and partnership roles, interviews with senior GPs and educational subcommittee to preceptorship programme.
Following that we also held a workshop with a small group of Clinical Directors and my summary from the meeting is attached here. We heard about the local challenges around morale and GP recruitment. We discussed the current offers by Training hub and Phoenix programme and will be sending out further information. We also submitted proposals for 20/21 around Preceptorship working in PCN and PCN portfolio roles and plans to be put in place for further engagement at ICP levels to help co-designs these roles. If you have an area of special interest around population health need then please get in touch with me or Phoenix programme to discuss further.
Nottinghamshire LMC held its annual conference on 30 January and link to the Keynote speaker Dr Richard Vautrey on the current state of affairs within General Practice is available here. I also held a workshop with Dr Jasjit Kaur Atwal on flexible working in General practice and here is a link to our presentation.
Jas presented her honest and at times painful story of working in General Practice which touched the minds and hearts of all those present. It was a powerful reminder that we need to do more to support health and well-being of our colleagues.
Here are some links you may find useful: GP-S Practitioner Health
Following this I also ran our second women’s network (which we have now renamed as ‘flexible working group’) and are in the process of finalising our survey on flexible working. This will help inform us of our current situation within the system and how we can help you achieve your potential and support individuals as well as organisations – look out for this survey. IPPR also issued this media statement on Gender Pay Gap within general practice which is as high as 35% . I will be raising this through the PCDB.
Dr Kirran Bilkhu a local GP (and attendee from the second cohort of Next Generation GP East Midlands) has been building on the proposal for those returning to work after a career break and the first Learn with Baby event – first of its kind in Nottinghamshire is planned for 3 March. Here is the link for it.
There is more support planned with return to work document and training tokens through GP Update. Also have a look at the other events and offers from Phoenix Programme.
Nottinghamshire Alliance of training hub (NATH) supported by EMLA has this four day leadership development programme on offer for practice managers/ deputy practice managers – free to attend starting 27 February. They have also organised sessions on introduction to multi professional clinical supervision which you can click through to here.
Second cohort of Next Generation GP East Midlands came to a close on 30 January with Prof Simon Gregory and Dr Raj Patel sharing their leadership journey and core principles around integrity and community. Next Generation Unconference 2020 is back see the trailer here.
Save the date 6th May 2020 Anchor and Thrive where we bring together a panel of clinical Directors with Dr Nikki Kanani (Primary Care medical director NHSE) with breakout sessions planned for board games and arts workshop!
TedxNHS 2019 videos are now available for viewing. I am making my way through them and you may be interested too. This extraordinarily courageous and inspiring talk by Fatima Elguenuni: Together for Grenfell: A personal journey Which teaches us that trust and compassion transcends everything.
I endeavour to work with you towards building community of sustainable General Practice.
As Ever,
Sonali