Discussing the Future of General Practice with your Colleagues
Why is change needed?
The Big GP Consultation has demonstrated how powerful discussing the future of General Practice with colleagues can be.
The insights shared and ideas generated during this process have been of great value. Sharing these findings widely, and starting conversations of your own, will not only ensure that the critical voice of the next generation is heard when designing the future of general practice, but it will also further facilitate the implementation of the ideas generated.
Conversations that The Big GP Consultation Team have had locally, regionally and nationally, have already demonstrated the power that sharing these insights can have in shaping the future of general practice. We would therefore encourage you to share the findings, and open these discussions in your local area, too.
How can I change this?
These conversations work best when they start with some information sharing (findings and ideas from The Big GP Consultation work well here), and then open up for discussion.
To facilitate the information sharing, we’ve created a PowerPoint presentation that outlines the key findings within each section of the final report. We’ve also included some key questions you may want to ask in order to start a discussion.
This PowerPoint is available for download below. We would encourage you to edit this to suit your needs – you may want to focus on one or two areas, and you may want to adapt the questions for discussion to reflect your own specific interests.
How do I get started?
You will first want to identify which group of people you’d like to share The Big GP Consultation Findings with.
If you are a GP trainee, your Vocational Training Scheme (VTS) would be an excellent place to start. In practice, you could request a slot in VTS teaching to both share the findings, and have a peer-to-peer discussion.
If you are an early career GP, you may prefer to have this discussion with your practice or PCN. This would lend itself nicely to a slot at a practice meeting, at a quarterly staff development afternoon, or at an away day, for example.
Once you have identified who, you will then want to contact them to arrange for this discussion to take place. We have drafted the template email below that you can use adapt and use to start this conversation.
What are my next steps?
These are all steps that The Big GP Consultation Team would be very happy to support you with. Please do email us with a summary of your plans, and how we may be able to help, and we’ll be back in touch with you as soon as possible.
Identify…
…the group of people you would like to lead a session for.
Edit…
…the PowerPoint to reflect the topics you would most like to discuss.
Contact…
…the lead for the session that you would like to present at (e.g., practice manager, or VTS leads) to request a slot.
How could I take this further?
From conversations that The Big GP Consultation Team have had to date, we know that the findings from this work, as well as the ideas generated, are of great interest to a wide range of organisations. These include Local Medical Committees and Integrated Care Boards.
To impact change beyond your PCN, or your VTS scheme, you may wish to share the findings from The Big GP Consultation more broadly. You may use the template email above to directly contact the Chair of your LMC, or the Medical Director of your ICB, to have this conversation with them and their team. The Big GP Consultation Team have experience of doing this, and would be very happy to support you in doing so.