GP Fed Blog

Let’s talk about . . . winter pressures. It is a well-known fact that winter occurs every year. This generates predictable increase in illness, predominantly respiratory infections. The bulk of this increased work is managed (brilliantly) in primary care, despite media coverage of either hospitals or ambulance services. What helps?...

And I mean YOU, all our fantastic primary care staff – reception, admin, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, physician associates, GPs. I want you to be able to still be working in the service going forward that is properly funded and supported. We know that the age profile for many of key...

“A little less conversation, a little more action, please” (Elvis Presley, 1968) “If anyone had said ten years ago: ‘Here’s what the NHS should do now; cut the share of funding to primary care and grow the number of hospital specialists three times faster than GPs’ they would have been...

Congratulations to West Suffolk MP Matthew Hancock who is now the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. We feel proud that a Suffolk MP is in such a prestigious position and we look forward to continuing our close working relationship. It was interesting to note his three key...

You may be aware that Suffolk GP Federation has been successful in winning the bid for the out-of-hours GP service in Suffolk. We are partnering with Care UK. Why did we bid? The Fed believes that out-of-hours is an integral part of primary care. The patient presenting with a chest...

I don’t believe the 60s were the golden age of pop You glorify the past When the future dries up U2 Love (part3)   A year or so ago I sat in a tutorial at the deanery autumn seminar taken by Vijay Najjar talking about the different generational groupings and...

Those familiar with the recent Churchill films will be well aware of his bombastic speeches. His answer, of course, was: “Victory… at all costs”. The Fed’s aims are more modest: “to support primary care…at reasonable cost”. But we remain ambitious and are committed to finding innovative solutions to address challenges....

I have written before about Suffolk GP Federation’s policy of being open and transparent  regarding significant events and issues that we come across. It’s interesting to note that organisations advising us to be open are less transparent themselves when they make much larger errors (e.g. the recent issue involving all...

Good quality is cheap; it’s poor quality that is expensive Joe L Griffiths Suffolk GP Federation is extremely proud of our community ultrasound service. This has grown steadily in size since it started in 2008, now providing 1,000+ scans per month. It was set up in response to concerns from...

We launched the Suffolk Locum Service towards the end of last year and there has been excellent take up from both practices and locums. Thanks to Dr Nigel Gibbons and Penny Flack, who spent a great deal of time making this work, and also our colleagues at Lantum who provide...