Are group consultations the future?

Asking if this could be the future of general practice, improving patient care and preserving stretched staffing and financial resources, the feature examines how group consultations work, and what the potential pros and cons are.

We introduce our new feature series looking at the wider practice team. Our Pharmacists in general practice article looks at how practices work with in-house pharmacists, speaking to a number of GP surgeries who have chosen to incorporate one or several pharmacists into their team about what it’s done for them and how it’s positively impacted on their practice.

The final issue of 2018 also includes coverage of the abuse, both verbal and physical, that practice managers and their teams sadly sometimes face from aggressive and threatening patients. Our article on this serious topic features interviews with three practice managers who share their personal experiences of this.

And we interview Val Hempsey, practice manager and partner at Bridges Medical Practice in Gateshead and the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the General Practice Awards 2018. The issue features additional coverage from the awards, highlighting our fantastic winners.