A forum to discuss the role of practice managers and the future for this profession will take place on Tuesday 29 January 2007.
The forum has been organised by Management in Practice Advisory Panel member Wendy Garcarz, who is inviting interested practice managers, who are keen to have their say on their job and its growing importance in primary care, to take part.
The forum meeting will take place from 10.30am to 4.00pm at The County Hotel, Birmingham Road, Walsall, WS1 2NG.
Ms Garcarz, a specialist in primary care development and managing director of a training and consultancy firm, is adamant that practice management receives greater recognition from policymakers because of its significance to the frontline of the health service.
Writing in the current issue of Management in Practice, Ms Garcarz states: “My aspiration for practice management is that it receives national and governmental recognition of its importance to the continued development of primary care service delivery.
“I would like the General Medical Council to recognise that GP practices are only truly effective with a competent and creative business manager leading it through change. I want SHAs and PCTs to work in equal partnership with practice managers, recognising their competence, skill and greater knowledge of the general practice business unit.”
Ms Garcarz urges practice managers to come forward and collectively raise the profile of their profession and the issues that practice managers face on a daily basis. The purpose of the forum meeting, Ms Garcarz says, is “to quantify how practice managers view their profession, and what they are willing and not willing to do to raise it to strategic and national body levels.”
Prominent practice managers, members of AMSPAR and the IHM, and key figures involved in developing professional bodies, brand imaging and marketing have been invited to this forum.
If you are passionate about the direction of practice management and would like to take part, please contact Ms Garcarz on 0121 240 8835, or email [email protected].
Your comments: (Terms and conditions apply)
“Sounds to me that Janet Newman should be offering to attend the forum and talk others through setting up such a good and effective committee!” – Name and address supplied
“I believe they do need one or the other. I once found myself in a very difficult situation, due to dramatic changes within the company I was working for, and had no one professionally to turn to. I ended up leaving the company before I went off sick due to stress!” – MS, West Yorkshire
“Wendy already knows my views on this, and it is an emphatic YES! In Dudley, we have had a strongish Practice Managers’ Group/Forum for some years, and at times PCT officers do listen to what we say and act on our wishes (but not always). The bigger and more professional we can become, the better” – Malcolm Wallace, Halesowen
“Practice managers do have effective representative groups in their localities if they choose to implement them. We do not need outside organisations organising us or telling about our profession and the direction it should be going. Practice managers’ responsibilities vary so greatly depending on the type and size of practice they work in, and on whether the practice manager is politically motivated or not. We in Oxfordshire have formed a very effective Oxfordshire Practice Manager Committee, with representatives from all parts of the county, and we have very effective liaison with the PCT and the LMC. This committee has raised the profile of practice management greatly” – Janet Newman, Practice Manager, Wallingford
“I agree totally with this but some practice managers are not business managers. Also PCTs do not work in equal partnership in some areas, and hospitals, in terms of expertise, are well ahead, not necessarily on effectiveness though” – Name and address supplied
