GP of the Year: ‘How our women’s health hub slashed waits through genuine collaboration’

We talk to the winners of last year’s General Practice Awards to learn how they work and what inspires them. First up is our GP of the Year Dr Ishi Bains, who won for her work in transforming women’s health services in Tower Hamlets

I was drawn to general practice by the privilege of continuity. Being able to care for patients over time, to understand their wider lives and not just their symptoms, was to me, the very crux of medicine. Because general practice is where the pressures of the system are felt most acutely, it is also where opportunities for meaningful change are often first visible.

I am a GP and mother of three young children, trained at Barts and London, working in Tower Hamlets, East London, all of which has shaped both how I practise clinically and how I think about leadership within the NHS.

The work for which I was nominated for GP of the Year centred on transforming women’s health services through the development and co-leadership of the Tower Hamlets Women’s Health Hub. The hub was created in response to long-standing challenges in benign gynaecology: fragmented pathways, long waiting times, inappropriate referrals, and limited access to timely specialist advice for GPs.

Launched in December 2023, the hub introduced a single point of access for referrals, underpinned by EMIS-based management pathways aligned with national guidance. Referrals are triaged within 48 hours by an MDT of GPs, gynaecology consultants and sexual and reproductive health specialists. Patients are supported to remain in primary care where appropriate, seen within the hub when specialist input is needed, or referred directly into secondary care when required. Our aim is simple and intentional: the right care, by the right clinician, at the right time, in the right place.

At the heart of our work is the belief that the NHS works best when we operate as one system, not as separate teams often with differing priorities. This has meant bringing primary and secondary care colleagues together to work collaboratively, rather than in isolation. By creating shared spaces for discussion and decision-making, we have moved away from transactional referrals towards genuine partnership, where responsibility for patient care is shared. This has increased mutual respect and understanding between stakeholders.

The hub’s impact has been measurable and, more importantly, consistent since its pilot phase through to the present day. Before the hub, around 85% of benign gynaecology referrals in Tower Hamlets were added directly to the hospital waiting list, with only 15% managed through A&G. Since the hub was introduced, A&G back to GPs has consistently remained at around 34-38%. A further 33-38% of patients are now seen within the Women’s Health Hub, with around 2% directed appropriately to sexual health services, and only around 26% requiring booking to the hospital outpatient list.

This shift has translated into sustained reductions in secondary care waiting lists at the Royal London Hospital. Waiting times that previously exceeded a year have reduced significantly and remained lower since the pilot phase, often reducing to:

• Menstrual disorders: around 7 weeks
• Recurrent miscarriage: around 2 weeks
• General gynaecology and pelvic pain: around 12 weeks
• Pelvic floor referrals: around 14 weeks

Although developed within women’s health, I am confident that this model and way of working is not unique to gynaecology. The principles of simplifying pathways, removing unnecessary barriers, enabling rapid specialist input, and building trusting relationships across sectors are applicable across many specialties. We do not need to reinvent the wheel; we just need to make it turn more smoothly.

I have also always thought it important to acknowledge that how we practise medicine is shaped not only by our training, but by our own personal healthcare experiences. Being patients ourselves, or caring for loved ones, gives us insight into what it feels like to navigate complex systems and wait for answers. These experiences have influenced my approach to service design, reinforcing the importance of compassion, clarity and accessibility alongside clinical rigour.

Our work with the hub has been deliberately led by both patients and clinicians. The most effective solutions come from those delivering care and those receiving it. Clinicians understand the realities of short consultations and rising demand; patients experience where systems feel confusing or inaccessible. Designing services around these realities ensures that workload is not increased, but instead made easier and quicker, supporting GPs to manage more confidently within primary care, with rapid access to advice during consultations.

One of the biggest takeaways for me with this model is that sustainable improvement depends on creating healthy, supportive environments for healthcare teams. When clinicians feel valued and connected, they thrive and patient outcomes improve.

Winning GP of the Year was deeply meaningful, not as an individual achievement but as recognition of collective effort. It reflects what is possible when we work together with a shared purpose. What I enjoy most about being a GP is the combination of human connection and problem-solving; whether that is in the consulting room or at system level. The principles remain the same: listen carefully, lead transparently, simplify wherever possible, and build strong, supportive teams.

Our focus for the hub’s future is to make specialist care easier to access and strengthening relationships between primary and secondary care. This includes providing GPs with rapid, reliable advice during consultations, supporting more care to be delivered safely within practices, and sharing resources across ICBs and where possible, regionally and nationally. By building a true community within the NHS, we can support one another better, reduce duplication, and create services that allow both patients and clinicians to flourish.

Healthcare is complicated but the systems that support it don’t need to be. I am aiming to drive forward with measurable and replicable models of cross-collaborative service delivery with increase in patient reported outcome measures and healthcare professional job satisfaction. I hope that this hub is only just the beginning of the work I can do to reshape how we collaborate across the NHS, to deliver care that is faster and fairer for both patients and clinicians.

Dr Ishi Bains is a GP, clinical lead for the Tower Hamlets Women’s Health Hub, regional primary care lead for gynaecology for London, and clinical lead for planned care and women’s health transformation across North East London.