An increase in staff motivation and the creation of a multidisciplined practice team have led to a Bradford practice winning the Management in Practice HR and Training Award.
Practice Manager Sarah Rhodes (pictured, centre) and Senior Receptionist Michelle Tempest (pictured, left), from Avicenna Medical Practice, were named winners of the national award recognising the creative and innovative use of training schemes in general practice.
Sarah Rhodes devised a specialised staff matrix for the practice administrative and reception team to identify training requirements. Following on from this, she devised training sessions on specific areas of practice (eg, “QOF and what to look for”). These sessions were hugely successful and enabled a multidisciplinary workforce to develop, increasing staff morale and teamwork.
Staff sickness levels have also decreased, Michelle Tempest says, as staff now feel valued, having “been given opportunities to shine by themselves, by showing what they can do”.
Furthermore, the practice has improved staff terms and conditions, with an increase in annual leave allowance and the implementation of an attendance bonus scheme.
Results of the GP Patient Survey this year support the view that services have improved – the number of patients who said reception staff were “good” to “excellent” increased from 84% to 92% this year. The practice is now working towards achieving the Investors in People award.
“I feel immense pride in my team as they have come together to pride themselves on good work and achieving targets, even when under pressure,” said Sarah Rhodes.
Debbie Bodhanya (pictured, right), Executive Director of Limes Medical Centre in Epping, winner of the 2008 MiP Practice of the Year Award, was one of the judges of the HR and Training Award, and presented the winners with their award.
“I truly believe that training and HR is at the centre of any good practice,” she said. “It was lovely to see that people have taken the time out to think about how training and development feed into the practice and showed a real appreciation of the individual needs of the whole team.”
