A good year for…
GP commissioners
There were fears that a problematic transfer of budgets to GPs in April could have been one of 2013’s big stories – that it wasn’t reflects well on CCGs.
Source: C. Milligan
Professor Steve Field
Surely the only GP brave enough to take on the new role of Chief Inspector of General Practice at the CQC.
Lawyers
New competition regulations affecting tendering decisions made by CCGs may or may not benefit patients, but they will certainly benefit the legal profession.
A bad year for…
Practice managers
CQC registration, payment chaos and the threat of staff redundancies; small wonder that recruitment agencies have seen a 12% jump in practice manager vacancies since January.
Source: corbis
GP stress
An assessment of 1,800 GPs found 43% are at very high risk of burnout. Pulse’s Battling Burnout campaign remains a work in progress.
Source: www.nhs.uk
NHS Direct
A catastrophic rollout of NHS 111, being forced to abandon a series of contracts and finally announcing its own demise: a ‘bad year’ doesn’t quite cover it.