Making general practice a better place to work

Practical resources to support GPs

GPs, at all stages of their career, are a valued and vital part of the NHS team. They should feel supported, and be able to develop fulfilling careers. However, many GPs have reported that as a result of workload, insufficient time, and increasing demands from patients, they are choosing to leave the profession early or reduce their working hours.

In 2018, we supported local initiatives to test activity that might improve GP retention through the GP Retention Intensive Support Sites. Evaluation of this work showed that where issues around workload are tackled and GPs have opportunities to work with greater flexibility or with greater variety and with additional support to help them in their role through mentoring or peer support, there is a greater chance that they will have increased job satisfaction and will be more likely to stay in general practice.

A practical toolkit has been developed from this work, setting out the key learning from these sites, and a list of key actions that local systems might adopt in local plans.

The toolkit provides a step-by-step process for those involved in developing the primary care workforce to develop and implement a robust GP retention action plan. It aims to:

  • Support clinical leads, GPs and their appraisers to know what good looks like and to understand the potential contribution of different levels of the system towards making general practice a better place to work.
  • Help primary care networks and local workforce leads to consider, know and respond to the support needs of their GPs, how they should engage with designing the local retention action plan and what funding is available.
  • Guide system leaders in understanding the core requirements of an effective action plan for GP retention and to ensure that these play a prominent part of the local primary care strategy.

Resources

GP retention: lessons from our intensive support sites

This film explores the experiences of colleagues in the Black Country, London, Weston-Super-Mare.

GPRISS Evaluation Report

Join the community

Join our community and share best practice with colleagues using the FutureNHS Collaboration Platform – email the primary care workforce team for access england.primarycareworkforce@nhs.net

Contact

Questions about the toolkit or the GP retention programme? Email the team.