A message from our new Chief Operating Officer

The Federation's Chief Operating Officer has sent the following message today to all our members

  • looking forward to working closely with our GPs and their teams
  • started NHS career nearly 25 years ago as NHS Graduate Management Trainee based at Leicester General Hospital
  • number of opportunities that James and the Board are actively investigating and pursuing on behalf of our practices, working in partnership

Dear Colleagues

I am delighted to have joined the ELR GP Federation and look forward to working closely with our GPs and their teams to determine the best ways to support the delivery of excellent primary healthcare services at scale across East Leicestershire and Rutland (ELR).

I am very fond of Leicester and Leicestershire having started my career nearly 25 years ago when I joined the NHS Graduate Management Training scheme based at Leicester General Hospital. Since then I have worked across the country in a number of operational, strategic and development roles within the NHS, Charity and Social Enterprise healthcare sectors.
We all know this is a challenging time to be working within the NHS to ensure that we deliver high quality healthcare to the people that use our services. It’s very exciting that all practices in ELR have agreed to come together to create our new GP Federation to help rise to that challenge. My commitment is to work with you all to determine how the Federation can effectively engage with our practices and add value to the delivery of primary care – recognising the local variations across ELR.

There are a number of opportunities that myself and the Board are actively investigating and pursuing on behalf of our practices, working in partnership. These include the urgent care and home visiting services for which the tender specification was released this week. (I will circulate a separate brief on this).

In the near future the public health preventative services will be tendered by Leicestershire County Council. We also looking at how we could use the pharmacy funds innovatively between practices, where appropriate. A number of you have mentioned that it would be helpful if the Federation could support with improving ‘back office’ efficiencies and we will explore this area.
I will also ensure that the Federation plays a key role in the MCP Integrated Locality Teams work that is taking place as part of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan in LLR. Linked to this we will actively participate in the work on primary care strategy.

We will, of course, keep you fully informed of developments in these areas as they occur.

My initial priority is to listen hard to all of you to understand the key issues that you are facing, so we can develop a jointly owned action plan for how the Federation will add value in supporting the development of primary care in ELR.
The best ideas for improvement often come from the people who work and receive services on a day to day basis in our local surgeries. That’s why we will shortly be launching a new initiative to hear all your ideas about how we can deliver great services and support your practices. And we have also launched an Online Listening Form via our website, where you can talk to us, give us feedback or ask us questions at any time.

I am very keen to understand your key issues and concerns. If you have any questions or would like to contact me at any time, please feel free to email me at [email protected]