My last post as Chair

This is my last post as Chairman of Council, and I write it with great sadness. The last three years have been the most wonderful time; it’s been a great privilege to travel the length and breadth of the UK leading the College. But the real privilege has been being able to meet GPs across the country; in practices, out of hours centres and at meetings. It’s been wonderful to see the great work that people do across the country and to hear just how GPs are working with their patients and the public. It has also been great fun to engage with managers, nurses, physios, and even journalists and politicians!

My beautiful leaving gift - thank you

The feedback I’ve had from patients and the general public about the care GPs provide has been excellent. I have, of course, had to answer some criticisms, which usually arrive in the form of an email or a letter, but occasionally I have been confronted in public meetings or in the media. I hope that I have been able to put forward the view of general practice in a constructive way, promoting high-quality care, but also acknowledging that as professionals we would like to provide the highest quality care that we can and that we are not complacent. I have tried to be clear about our professionalism; we all want to do the best for our patients and, given the appropriate resources and support I am sure British general practice will continue to go from strength to strength.

I’ve had a fantastic team within the College who I will miss greatly. I’ll miss the staff, and the GPs, all of whom I have thanked personally in my AGM speech, which you’ll find on the College website shortly.

I’d particularly like to say thank you to the brilliant press team that we’ve got; Gillian Watson, Heather Whitney and Charlie Breslin. And of course I’d like to thank Gillie Lyons, who’s been a wonderful support to me over the last three years, and has kept me sane when all hell has broken loose.

I’ll miss them all.

The future is bright: General practice is definitely at the centre of the NHS. As you will have picked up from my emails, and from meeting me, I am an eternal optimist. I believe that with strong GP and clinical leadership we can really improve the care for our patients and make a massive contribution to improving the public’s health across the UK.

So with these optimistic words, I wish you the best of luck for the future, I thank you all, from the bottom of my heart for your support, and challenge, over the last three years which has helped me personally and professionally in leading the College. I will continue to support the college, to support general practice, and promote the key role of the generalist in whatever I end up doing in the months and years to come.

Of course, you haven’t seen the last of me, and I’m going to continue to blog here once I’ve had a bit of a rest.

With very best wishes, now and for the future,

Steve

My penultimate post as Chair

Time and tide wait for no man, and though the last week of my tenure as Chair is approaching fast, I have still been able to attend some truly remarkable events over the last few days.

It was lovely to make my last trip as Chairman to Scotland to celebrate the work of my good friend Ken Lawton, Chair of Scottish Council, at the end of his excellent three year term. He’s been a wonderful supporter and has really led the Scottish Council with great skill and wisdom. Ken’s gala dinner also included giving awards to deserving GPs in Scotland. Meeting the winners was a wonderful experience and it was great to talk to GPs who continue to provide extremely good care in what are often very challenging circumstances. It was also good to see Bridget Osborne and David Johnston, Chairs of Wales and Northern Ireland Councils respectively. All three have contributed to the UK College as well as their own more than anyone knows. I am pleased that Ken will continue to serve the College as Deputy Chair of the Postgraduate .
Professional Development Board

I have worked hard to ensure that we have had the very best GPs, and the very best GP organisations re-engage with the College. Indeed I hope when I stand down in a weeks time I will have left the College in a stronger place, and I am particularly pleased for example that we have been able to elect Martin Marshall, former Deputy Chief Medical Officer and GP academic, as Chair of our Ethics Committee; Val Wass, Dean of the University of Keele Medical School, as Chair of International; Amanda Howe as Honorary Secretary; Helen Lester – one of the brains behind QOF, as Chair of CIRC.

As Clare prepares to begin her tenure, Has Joshi is stepping down as Vice Chair, and I am grateful for all of his dedication and hard work. In their places, we’ve got two wonderful new vice chairs – Nigel Mathers and Janet Hall - whose injection of new energy into the team will be a great support for Clare. Not only have we managed to appoint fantastic people, but we’ve also engaged better with key organisations including our colleagues taking forward research in the Society of Academic Primary Care, and the Primary Care clinical societies.

I am a firm believer in the doctrine that in order to lead you need the best people around you, not to be surrounded by yes men who will agree with you no matter what, but those who will challenge you and make you think carefully about the decisions you make. I have taken this from the writings of Abraham Lincoln and, most recently, John F Kennedy. I think the College Council and the Officers are stronger than they’ve ever been – strong leadership is team leadership – and the College is in very good hands. I’ll say more about that in my last email which will reach you after the AGM on Friday.

Nigel Sparrow’s excellent work leading the Professional Development Board has included the educational sessions on work and pensions. So far, 2700 delegates have been trained since the workshops were launched last year, which is excellent news for Nigel, his team, the delegates and their patients.

I believe that encouraging people to stay in work, and getting people back to work quickly is good for them, their families and the economy in general. Unfortunately we haven’t managed to radically change behaviours as yet – but we will carry on encouraging the benefits of the fit note.

It's now been more than six months since the fit note was introduced and I'd like to remind GPs about the impact it can have in helping people get back to work. The fit note is an important tool that clinicians can use to provide advice to patients, and their employers, on how a health condition affects their ability to work and what practical steps might be taken to help them work as they recover. The knowledge that work is generally good for health and wellbeing has been available for several years now and it is important that we ensure our practices use the evidence and make best use of the potential the fit note has to improve the health and wellbeing of our patients. The DWP worked in partnership with the college to develop guidance for the fit note, and if you have not read it already I would recommend it to you - it can be viewed online at
www.dwp.gov.uk/fitnote

GPs interested in learning more about dealing with health and work in consultation may want to attend the RCGP 'Health and Work in General Practice' training. (Find out more and register online at www.rcgp.org.uk/news_and_events/courses__events/health_and_work_training.aspx)

I am very pleased to tell you that e-GP, the curriculum-based e-learning programme developed by the College in partnership with e-Learning for Healthcare, has won a silver award at the prestigious e-Learning AGE awards. These awards are highly regarded in the e-learning industry and the awards ceremony was held in London last Thursday. e-GP won a silver award in the category of Excellence in the production of learning content - Public Sector. Other award winners in the 'excellence in content' categories included British Airways, Marks & Spencer and Volkswagen Group. The Royal College of Anaesthetists won a bronze award for their e-LfH project.

I would like to thank Ben Riley, our Medical Director of e-Learning, Bill Reith, as Chair responsible, and the staff team for all the hard work that they have put into this project. I am often told that it is a fantastic resource for GPs, and it is wonderful that this has been so publically recognised. Ben in particular has worked extremely closely with our partners, e-LfH, as well as with all of the editors and authors who have provided the content which has been judged to be of such excellent quality.

More information about the awards can be found on the e-Learning AGE website: http://www.elearningage.co.uk/winners.aspx

Last Monday night I had the great privilege of attending the Pride of Britain Awards, for which I was on the judging panel. The Awards really are a fantastic event, recognising the remarkable achievements of real people who strive to improve the lives of those around them, and I was in awe of all of the award winners. The ceremony, hosted by Carol Vorderman was fantastic, and it would be a lie to say that I wasn’t a little bit starstruck meeting a cavalcade of famous faces.

The experience of judging the winners with Simon Cowell was surreal to say the least, but I did find myself making an unexpected comparison; he has such an incisive mind, he makes a diagnosis and he comes up with a treatment – just like a GP. Unsurprisingly, we agreed on all counts(!) It was also nice to discuss the achievements of these inspiring people with my fellow Baggies follower Adrian Chiles.

I will continue to keep you updated here once I step down from office.

My next email to you will be my last as Chairman of Council. Until then, as ever, I and the College really do value your opinions and feedback enormously, and I urge you to get in touch if you have any comments or questions for me.

The importance of research

I had expected that, as I approach the end of my tenure, my diary commitments would begin winding down. This, alas, was not to be and this week has been as busy as ever.

But nevertheless, my time as Chairman will soon be at an end, and I have been thrilled with how Clare Gerada has been taking forward so much crucial College work. Her work on Commissioning in particular has been invaluable, and it fills me with confidence to know that the College will be in her capable hands.

Last week I had the great honour and pleasure of giving the David Bruce Lecture to the Army Medical Services at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst. I gave an academic lecture celebrating general practice and focused on the critical role GPs can play in the care of the most vulnerable people in our society, particularly the homeless, travellers, sex workers and refugees.

As someone who has a great interest in history, to give the David Bruce lecture was a particular treat. Sir David Bruce started off his career like me, working in a warehouse in Manchester before going to medical school! He was a GP in Reigate and then joined the Army. He investigated and treated Malta-fever (later named Brucellosis after him). He identified the cause of sleeping sickness and saved countless lives by introducing typhoid and tetanus inoculation for the troops in the First World War. What a man!

Giving the lecture also gave me an opportunity to once again thank the army medical services for their hard work, commitment and bravery in looking after our troops both in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am always so humbled by the skill of our military colleagues who work in difficult, often frightening circumstances, and I was grateful for the opportunity to speak to them.

This week I was called to give evidence on commissioning to the Health Select Committee. Of all the times I have been called as a witness to the Health Select Committee, this was probably the most difficult and challenging I have experienced; the commissioning agenda is in many ways polarized, and it was apparent to me that there was a degree of political point-scoring taking place. If you would like to read the transcript, or watch the video of the evidence session, then they are available through the parliament website; I think you will find it interesting viewing, not least because as it highlights the value of open questions – there were very few of them! The video is a good teaching aid for trainees which will work as a trigger for discussion – also giving evidence was the excellent Richard Vautrey from the BMA.

You can read the transcript and view the video here: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=6842

Dr Knut Schroeder, a GP and Fellow of the College has produced a new publication Diagnosing Your Health Symptoms for Dummies which I want to bring your attention to. This new guide has been endorsed by the College as part of our ongoing agenda of helping to empower patients and their families. I have been quite vocal on the issue of public health, and really believe that giving patients the information and support needed to make informed decisions about their own health and the healthcare they receive is a vital to improving the public’s general health. This guide is an accessible way to help patients to begin to take control of their own health, and I’d urge all of you to take a look.

On Wednesday night I hosted a working dinner for College Officers and the Society of Academic Primary Care. Throughout my time as Chair I have worked to create stronger links between the College and our academic colleagues. I am pleased that College has re-engaged with the academic departments – I felt that we had drifted apart and wanted to take the chance as Chairman to work more closely with the GPs and the many other professionals who research in primary care – this isn’t just about GPs.

We have seen an extraordinary few years of research which will make massive difference to patients’ lives, one recent example being Willie Hamilton’s excellent award winning study into identifying early symptoms of ovarian cancer which I believe will lead to the earlier diagnosis by GPs of what has been called the ‘silent killer’. Willie is I guess a modern day David Bruce.

Research, academia and evidence-based practice are all important parts of the work that all medical professionals do, we just sometimes fail to recognise that we are an academic discipline – all jobbing GPs across the country aim to provide the highest quality evidence based care for our patients – we need to value and celebrate the work of our colleagues who produce that evidence. Our RCGP Clinical Innovation and Research Centre at the College (CIRC) is becoming enormously influential, and our Conference this year had more clinical and academic sessions than ever before.

I want to thank CIRC for their continuing support; I and the College continue to advise the Government and our four health departments on clinical matters, and a lot of the information we use comes directly from CIRC and the academic departments. I’m always hugely impressed with their abilities; I’ve often had to request up-to-date information which I’ve received at the drop of a hat, and much of our success is owed to their hard work.

Yesterday I attended our MRCGP Examiners’ Annual Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon, which is an opportunity to meet with another group of GPs who are committed to raising standards. Again, I have been hugely impressed with how the exam has been developed over the last year, and with the continuing academic rigour with which it has been approached.