Grow Your Own!

16th August 2016

Recently the Federation run two courses called ‘Leading he Way’ for both more advanced GP’s and Foundation Doctor’s. The feedback from the courses has been extremely positive and it is heartening to see that many of our colleagues on the ‘Leading the Way’ courses are already involved in service development, both within the Federation and other organisations .For me; success of a programme is about output rather than process. We were thanked by one of the attendees on the course, who stated that this was the first time that anybody had spent time on developing him as a Doctor. It was also somewhat depressing (!) and something the Federation wishes to address.  We have also run a similar session for Practice Manager’s.

Recent work in Felixstowe across the three practices looking to merge has demonstrated a wide variety in the amount of support and development our staff receive. Working in small busy practices can be very hard and staff development can be something that is left to the back of the queue .It is clear to me how little we have nurtured and developed our nursing within the team and I feel is a great potential that we have overlooked; the same for administration and pharmacy etc.

There is much talk about leadership, which seems to be the current buzzword in health education.  But, it is quite clear that this does not just happen and must be nurtured and developed within appropriate training and support.

Last year, the Federation was able to fund these courses as they were part of the application for the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund. We see this as supporting one of our key aims in supporting Primary Care. Health Education England and NHSE have also appeared to have woken up to the problem.

It  always give me a great sense of pride to see my own GP trainees working locally and I feel the same about the ‘graduates’ from these courses; I am looking forward to seeing them do great things in our local health economy. More power to their elbow…

If you would like to if you like details about upcoming courses please contact David Pannell david.pannell@suffolkfed.org.uk

Dr Paul Driscoll
Chair and Medical Director
Haven Health
Grange Farm Ave
IP11 2XD
01394 670107