How we support GPs with extended roles

Practitioners in scholarship

Countries which have the strongest primary care have the most effective, efficient and equitable health care. Academic primary care is critical to providing the framework for healthcare systems, drawing on expertise from the fields of clinical practice, social science, and and the humanities. However academic primary healthcare practitioners represent a relatively small body and alone cannot produce the corpus of work which primary care needs to buttress its practice. Furthermore , research is increasingly recognised as a core skill of contemporary practice. Many GPs and primary care clinicians are already undertaking extended roles which shape/direct/promote Primary Care research and scholarly activity. We need to ‘capture’, nurture and support that workforce in order to reinforce the necessary strengthening of our capacity.

This area of work has led to a new term entering the lexicon: ‘eGPs’ defined as GPs with extended skills in applied scholarship, who are as yet an un-quantified and under explored group.  

Partnership with Royal College of General Practitioners

SAPC is leading a work stream, in conjunction with the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) who are committed to supporting research active general practice ( see document ‘RCGP: The 2022 GP. A Vision for General Practice in the Future NHS’ ). The work stream aims to understand and develop the eGP role and is keen to work in partnership with the wider primary care community.

We intend to work with existing informal networks (in Manchester & Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside) and consider how these networks can be sustained, extended and developed as exemplars of good practice.

Regional CHLARC Funding

Funding from a regional CHLARC has been sought to undertake a scoping questionnaire; identify research active clinicians and work collaboratively with partners to create a network across the North West Coast; to host a number of collaborative events to be facilitated by the North West NIHR CRN, SAPC and RCGP and collate data from these activities to produce an eGP needs analysis that will be widely disseminated across the PC and APC communities.

We  have been inspired by the work and achievements of PHoCuS in planning this work. It is hoped that we can draw upon the breadth of experience of GPs with extended skills, often working in non- traditional and isolated settings, to inform this new venture.