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LMC sets up scheme to convince GPs to choose portfolio roles over quitting

An LMC has launched a new initiative to support GPs who are considering leaving general practice to become portfolio GPs.

The scheme, named GP Portfolio Plus, involves experienced GPs connecting those signed up to relevant opportunities through an online database.

Nottinghamshire LMC is hoping that this will help the area retain current GPs and attract the newly qualified.

It has set up a small team of GPs to work directly with those accessing the support and link them with relevant opportunities through a regularly-updated online database, which includes details of available roles, training opportunities and events.

The initiative, which was supported by the peer mentoring service GP-S, will also involve a peer support network for GPs to access.

It was introduced following a local GP survey which found that many wanted to work more flexibly but remain in the profession if possible.

Local GP and Nottinghamshire LMC chief executive Dr Michael Wright, who is a GP Portfolio Plus team member, said: ‘The traditional model of full-time working in a practice is not what a number of GPs want. This is also evident through the choices made by the majority of GP trainees as they join the workforce.’

He continued: ‘This service gives individual access to a range of support, from one-to-one sessions discussing how to improve the GP’s working life, to helping with training and diversifying their ways of working.

‘We aspire to make Nottinghamshire stand out as a centre of excellence for GPs and have made inroads towards this aim with our core GP-S coaching and mentoring service, which has seen more than 200 GPs access it in three years of running.’

Official figures from May of this year show that the GP workforce in England has continued to decline, with the number of FTE GPs having decreased by more than 1,000 since September 2015, when the then health secretary pledged to boost the workforce by 5,000.