Leadership Roles

Primary care in Northern Ireland has been undergoing enormous change trying to meet the challenges and pressures of an aging population, limited resources for primary healthcare, increasing use of technology and workforce issues  such as recruitment and retention problems .

All of these present great leadership challenges for those working in primary care. Leaders in primary care need to be visionary in designing future services and effective in leading their teams to improve the quality of health care and health and wellbeing of local communities.

There are 17 GP Federations which are locally led and who aim to provide better care, delivered in a more responsive way and closer to home, for patients registered on the lists of practices within the Federation. The focus is on working across the local health and social care community, in collaboration with a wide number of agencies, to design and implement innovative healthcare strategies and ways of delivering high quality care.

 Don’t be put off by the term ‘leadership’.

Simply put, leadership is about influencing others to take action for change

 It’s not just for those senior GP Partners or staff in a management role or senior position, but for everyone in primary care. Medical leadership in primary care works best when it is made up of a diverse group of doctors at every stage in their career.

More experienced GPs can bring their experience to the table whilst colleagues who have just joined the profession can bring great ideas especially in the areas if innovation and technology and help shape the direction the profession will take in the future.

Leadership roles and development can support those wanting to progress in their careers as well as those who want to be more effective at coping with the challenges of their daily role and the changing landscape in primary care. These roles help local leaders to grow the knowledge, skills, perspectives, confidence, and resilience that will help them to think more strategically, to work more proactively in their teams, support inclusive and compassionate cultures, and to bring about innovative ways of working and improvements in patient care.

There are many opportunities in to develop leadership skills in the many facets which make up primary care.

In Practice

o   Developing practice guidelines

o   Taking responsibility for a management area in the practice e.g., premises / staff etc

In Local GP Federation (more info here)

o   Taking on role of practice federation member director

o   Taking management role in local federation e.g., Chair, Vice chair, Treasurer etc

In Local Federation Support Unit (FSU) (more info here)

o   Role in management team – Chair, vice chair, treasurer

o   Clinical lead roles

  • GP Elective Care Services

  • Pharmacy

  • Multi-disciplinary team

  • IT e.g., GPNI

  • Education

o   Leadership programmes

  • Next-gen GP

  • Future GPNI

In Education (more info here)

o   Medical students

o   GP Speacialty Trainees (GPST)

o   NIMDTA

  • Facilitators

  • Programme Directors (PDs)

  • Associate Directors (ADs)

In Appraisal (more info here)

In Strategic Planning and Policy Group (SPPG; formerly HSCB)

o   Medical advisors

o   Clinical Leads

In other Clinical Areas

o   Inclusion Health        

Deep end GP

Refugee health

Prison Health

In Local Medical Committee (LMC) or General Practitioner Committee (GPC) (more info here)

In Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) (more info here)

o   Member

o   Council Members

o   Executive Council Members

o   Vice chair

o   Chair

 The future of General Practice is in our hands!

Let us all work together to make this the best career whilst maintaining our excellent care for patients