The GPIP team will be at the Welsh NHS Confederation annual conference and exhibition

This February the GPIP team will be exhibiting at this years Welsh NHS Confed event at Cardiff City Hall. 

The annual conference is the leading national event for health and social care in Wales. It’s a great opportunity for key stakeholders to come together and discuss the care system within Wales, share ideas about how to make a difference and look at ways to improve their services.

The General Practice Improvement Team will be attending the event talking to delegates about the improvement techniques available to general practices in Wales to help them alleviate the pressures they face and increase their productivity. 

We look forward to meeting you at the show next month. 

GPIP exhibits at the NHS Scotland Event

The GPIP team are excited to be exhibiting at the upcoming NHS Scotland event in Glasgow on 20th/21st June. 

The two day event is the leading health event in Scotland and is considered to the “premier meeting place” for those providing Health & Social Care services to the people of Scotland. The event is really a chance for people to come together to share best practice and innovative approaches on how to deliver the highest quality care. For others, it’s a chance to take away the techniques to support this delivery.

Working differently across boundaries: transforming health and social care

This year’s theme focuses on the transformation of the Health and Care system that is taking place in Scotland; aiming to create a happier, healthier nation. Key to this ambition is the integration of services, a strong focus on prevention and the support for patients to self-manage their care, while keeping care standards high. 

The General Practice Improvement Team will be on stand 63 talking to delegates about practical improvement methods that allow General Practice and care teams to reduce the pressures they face during their daily workload. 

Watch the GPIP video to find out how it really works

GPIP ambassadors will be available on both days to help you understand how General Practices across Scotland can:

• Create headspace for practices working through current and future pressures

• Strip out wasteful activities to lighten the workload

• Find more time in the day – the most precious commodity in a modern practice

• Solve operational headaches and build improvement confidence

Drop by the stand to learn more about improvement programmes built on lean methodology; to give you a head start, the programme only lasts 12 weeks and there is no homework. If nothing else, just drop by to say hello and help yourself to a bottle of GPIP water – they’re refreshing and help to reduce the pressure (of the show at least!).

We look forward to meeting you at the show, if you want to schedule time with us, send your contact details to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and follow #nhsscot17 for all the event updates.

GPIP Case study: Chasing the Tail

Over 450 general practices across the UK have carried out the improvement programme and continue to talk positively about their experiences. We have captured some of the feedback in our case studies, so if you’re interested in finding out more about some of the modules within the programme, visit the case studies page.

Chasing the tail is one of the six modules that practices can choose to do; this particular medium-sized practice based in England has a list size of 8000+ patients and selected this module to help improve the service they deliver to patients and put them in a better place to meet increasing demands. Using a structured problem solving approach, the practice quickly identified two patients that required further examination.

The main objective of this module is to find what we call the ‘frequent flyers’ – those patients that visit the surgery frequently and demand a disproportional amount of time. This module is great for helping practices release capacity.

Upon completion of the module the multi-disciplinary team identified a total of 24 patients, 80% of whom now had the opportunity to be managed differently and receive a greater holistic nature to their care. The practice now have a great understanding of their patient population and where their capacity is utilised across the practice.

“We did have one patient who was our highest user, who we spoke to nearly every day, we did manage nearly 10 days without management. They are not contacting us as much through the Chasing the Tail work. They had 102 doctor contacts in the last year. We now have a plan for the patient, which everyone understands and we can put into action what we have collectively agreed.” 

– Practice Manager

You can find the full case study including the results here