Dr Shamila Wanninayake

Newly qualified GPs are lucky to have Dr Wanninayake fighting their corner. Nominated for her leadership of the RCGP’s First5 committee, the Oxford salaried and locum GP says her biggest achievement this year has been steering the committee through its first year of formal college committee status, ‘forging representation at every level’ for junior GPs.

The committee is working with the RCGP revalidation and appraisal working group, ‘providing feedback on the difficulties and challenges that are faced by new GPs’. Meanwhile, Dr Wanninayake is also spearheading a campaign to offer better support to new GP parents.

She is also helping to attract more graduates to general practice by taking advantage of her role as a GP tutor for the University of Oxford Medical School. She says she wants to work towards an ‘improved profile of general practice among medical students and effectively bash out the negativity and professional snobbery that can be encountered’.

‘I teach medical students at the University of Oxford. If I am successful here, it can be done anywhere,’ Dr Wanninayake adds.

What to watch next year: She wants to ‘make it easier for junior GPs to engage more locally and nationally, and to gain the support and information they need at the start of their careers’.