General practice is the name given in various nations, such as the United Kingdom, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to the services provided by general practitioners. In some nations, such as the US, similar services may be described as family medicine or primary care. The term Primary Care in the UK may also include services provided by community pharmacy, optometrist, dental surgery and community hearing care providers. The balance of care between primary care and secondary care - which usually refers to hospital based services - varies from place to place, and with time. In many countries there are initiatives to move services out of hospitals into the community, in the expectation that this will save money and be more convenient.
The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquarters are in Tavistock Square, London and it has national offices in Cardiff, Belfast, and Edinburgh, a European office in Brussels and a number of offices in English regions. The BMA has a range of representative and scientific committees and is recognised by National Health Service (NHS) employers as the sole contract negotiator for doctors.
Polyclinics in England were intended to offer a greater range of services than were offered by current general practitioner (GP) practices and local health centres. In addition to traditional GP services they would offer extended urgent care, healthy living services, community mental health services and social care, whilst being more accessible and less medicalised than hospitals. A variety of models were proposed, ranging from networks of existing clinics to larger premises with several colocated general practitioner (GP) practices, more extensive facilities and additional services provided by allied healthcare professionals.
General medical services (GMS) is the range of healthcare that is provided by general practitioners as part of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. The NHS specifies what GPs, as independent contractors, are expected to do and provides funding for this work through arrangements known as the General Medical Services Contract. Today, the GMS contract is a UK-wide arrangement with minor differences negotiated by each of the four UK health departments. In 2013 60% of practices had a GMS contract as their principle contract. The contract has sub-sections and not all are compulsory. The other forms of contract are the Personal Medical Services or Alternative Provider Medical Services contracts. They are designed to encourage practices to offer services over and above the standard contract. Alternative Provider Medical Services contracts, unlike the other contracts, can be awarded to anyone, not just GPs, don't specify standard essential services, and are time limited. A new contract is issued each year.
Doctors in Unite is a trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. It was formerly known as the Medical Practitioners' Union (MPU) before its affiliation with Unite.
Michael Dixon LVO, OBE, MA, FRCGP is an English general practitioner and healthcare leader. He served as chair of the NHS Alliance from 1998 to 2015 and is a past President of the NHS Clinical Commissioners. He also chairs the College of Medicine. He is a visiting professor at University College London and the University of Westminster and National Clinical Champion for Social Prescribing.
Dame Clare Mary Louise Francis Gerada, Lady Wessely, is a London-based general practitioner who is President of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and a former chairperson of the RCGP Council (2010–2013). She has professional interests in mental health and substance misuse.
Chaand Nagpaul is a British doctor who works as a general practitioner and is Chair of the Council of the British Medical Association. Nagpaul took over as chair from Mark Porter in June 2017.
Dr Jacky Davis has been a consultant radiologist at Whittington Hospital London since 1981 with special interests in paediatrics, ultrasound and breast imaging.
Out-of-hours services are the arrangements to provide access to healthcare at times when General Practitioner surgeries are closed; in the United Kingdom this is normally between 6.30pm and 8am, at weekends, at Bank Holidays and sometimes if the practice is closed for educational sessions.
Marie-Louise Irvine is a Scottish general practitioner, health campaigner, and parliamentary candidate. She unsuccessfully stood for election in the 2015 General election and the 2017 General election for the National Health Action Party in the constituency of South West Surrey. She came second to Jeremy Hunt in the 2017 election; reducing his majority.
Miles B. Mack is a British medical doctor who is chair of the Scottish Academy and was chair of the Scottish council of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) 2014–2017. He works as a general practitioner in Dingwall in the north of Scotland.
Richard Vautrey is a doctor who was Chair of the British Medical Association's (BMA) General Practitioners Committee. He is a nationally elected member of the BMA Council. He works as a general practitioner (GP) in Leeds and he is an assistant medical secretary of Leeds Local Medical Committee.
Brian Douglas Keighley was a Scottish medical doctor who worked as a general practitioner (GP) and was the chair of the Scottish Council of the British Medical Association (BMA) from 2009 to December 2014.
John William Chisholm is a British medical doctor who works as a general practitioner (GP). Chisholm was chairman of the British Medical Association's General Practitioners' Committee (GPC) between 1997 and 2007.
Peter J P Holden is a doctor who works as a General Practitioner in Matlock, Derbyshire. He is a member of the Council of the British Medical Association, member of its GP committee since 1981 who was a negotiator with the General Practitioner's Committee (GPC) for more the 15 years.
GP Federations became popular among English general practitioners after 2010 as a means to exploit the opportunities - or mitigate the threats - posed by the Five Year Forward View proposals in the English NHS which envisaged delivering primary care at a larger scale than the traditional GP list. It is widely believed that ‘Practices cannot survive on their own – they have to look at ways of making themselves stronger.’ 15 sites were selected in December 2015 to test new enhanced primary care models serving populations of 30,000 to 50,000 patients. Some, but by no means all, clinical commissioning groups have given financial support to encourage the formation of federations.
Fraser Macintosh Rose,, known as Fraser Rose, was a physician who worked as a general practitioner (GP), and is best known for co-founding the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).
Shiv Pande is an Indian-born general practitioner (GP) doctor in the United Kingdom. In the 1980s, Pande presented the UK's Asian television programme Aap Kaa Hak, which ran for fourteen years. He was chair of the British International Doctors' Association (BIDA), formerly known as the Overseas Doctors Association (ODA). In addition, he was the first Asian doctor to be elected as treasurer of the General Medical Council. He is a visiting professor at Gauhati University, India, and at the University of Bolton.
Hamish Meldrum is a British doctor who worked as a general practitioner and was Chair of the Council of the British Medical Association (BMA) 2007–2012. He took this role on after being Chair of the BMA's General Practitioners Committee (GPC) 2004–2007.
