The business of being a GP
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 615 Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Since the very beginning of the NHS, GP surgeries have been, in effect, businesses with contracts to do the work the Health Service needs. But in recent decades, patient numbers have grown, surgeries have become larger and the services offered more varied. Many GP surgeries now employ administrative staff, nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics, as well as doctors.
What's it like to be a clinician and run a small business at the same time? What are the pressures? How do you get the books to balance? And how do you attract more people to join one of the front lines of the NHS? Evan Davis and guests discuss.
GUESTS Dr. John Lynch, GP Partner, Framfield House Surgery, Woodbridge Suffolk Dr. Matt Noble, GP Partner, GP@hand, Bablyon Health a 'digital first' practice Dr. Yazmin Razak, Single GP practitioner, North Kensington and Dr. Rebecca Rosen, Senior Fellow, Health Policy at the Nuffield Trust and part-time GP, South London
Producers: Julie Ball and Kirsteen Knight Researcher: Louise Byrne Sound Engineers: Graham Puddifoot and Rod Farquhar Editor: Simon Watts
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.4 | Hello and welcome to the programme. |
| 0:07.1 | Now, in the NHS, there are many points of stress right now, |
| 0:10.6 | but the first problem that most people encounter is in finding it difficult to get an appointment to see their GP. |
| 0:17.4 | You may not think of them as businesses. |
| 0:19.4 | You may not want them to act like businesses, but GP practices |
| 0:22.6 | certainly have some business-like features. GPs are not employees of the NHS. They're not paid a |
| 0:29.6 | salary by government. They're independent outfits, small businesses, sometimes not so small, selling services to the government, |
| 0:39.0 | and paying their own salaries accordingly. Now this week, we wanted to see how that sector works, how it could be |
| 0:44.3 | changing, and whether GP practices are already too commercial or whether they could benefit |
| 0:50.8 | from more business thinking. And my guest this week includes some of those overstretched general practitioners. |
| 0:57.6 | So let's meet them one by one. |
| 0:59.6 | And first of all, Dr. Yasmin Razak, GP partner at a practice in West London, |
| 1:04.7 | in North Kensington, to be exact, kindly joining us on her leave. |
| 1:09.0 | Yasmin, tell us a little about the practice, |
| 1:10.8 | because you're a |
| 1:11.4 | relatively, relatively small practice. Yes, so I am a single-handed GP. There aren't many of us |
| 1:17.5 | left anymore. And our model is continuity of care. So we have just under 3,000 patients who we all |
| 1:23.0 | know individually. And despite the fact there's one GP, you've actually got quite a large multi-professional |
| 1:28.6 | team looking after our patients. You're the GP, so they get the named doctor who they know |
| 1:34.0 | basically when they go back. Yeah, they get the named doctor, they also get the ethos, tailored |
| 1:39.0 | care, very responsive to patients' needs. You own the practice. It's your business, basically, correct? I guess so, yes. So I am the contract holder. I've got the full liability. I guess you can think about it that way. The pressure's on me. Yeah, yeah. What do GPs get paid? We get paid roughly £100 a patient per year, and that would be less than, I guess, you'd ensure your hamster for and that's for up to |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.