A CHAIN of GP practices which offers staff John Lewis-style benefits has launched across Scotland.
So far five sites in Glasgow, Edinburgh and West Lothian have become part of the Barclay Medical Practice group, overseen by a Glasgow doctor and his practice manager.
Dr Des Spence and Kim McWilliams, who ran two surgeries in Glasgow, created the network after taking over surgeries which were on the verge of collapse.
Read more: Record number of GP practices taken over by health boards
All the surgeries are signed up to the same charter, offering patients rapid appointments with all children seen that day. Longer opening hours, including Saturday mornings, are also being brought in and patients at the Barclay Medical Practice also benefit from extra practice staff such as physiotherapists and mental health counsellors to fast-track their access to treatment without relying on hospital waiting lists. It also directly employs a paramedic to undertake house calls.
The amount of money GP partners can draw from the surgeries has been capped and staff, including receptionists, receive a share of the profits, similar to the retailer John Lewis where all employees receive the same percentage of their salary as an annual bonus.
In addition, Barclay Medical Practice refuses to deal with drug company representatives and to take private medical work.
Dr Spence, 50, said: "Our aspiration is to become like a social enterprise, a bit like John Lewis. Ultimately it all belongs to the staff, including receptionists and nursing staff."
It comes as the profession struggles with a recruitment crisis and an increase in practices being taken over by health boards as GP partners pull out.
Dr Spence added: "There is a very distinct narrative in general practice right at the moment that everything is doom and gloom and it is failing.
"There is no doubt there are pressures. I wrote about these things for a long time and then saw there is an opportunity."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel