To inform its work, the Inquiry panel commissioned a discussion paper to examine the value of GPs as leaders. The leadership challenge for general practice in England assesses the barriers to providing high quality clinical leadership, what general practice can do to develop leadership capacity, and ways to measure the extent and quality of clinical leadership.

The paper’s authors are Richard Giordano, Senior Consultant, Leadership, The King’s Fund, and Professor Steve Field, GP and Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Leave us your comments below and read the discussion paper when it is published later in the summer.

Key issues raised for debate include:

• What are the appropriate leadership and advocacy roles for GPs in the wider local health economy?
• What influence can GPs have on policy at the community, primary care trusts and regional level, including on the commissioning and evaluation of new services?
• How can individuals and teams in general practice be motivated to provide high-quality clinical leadership and to sustain innovation and improvement?

We’d like to get your views on how important you think clinical leadership in general practice is to good-quality care. What do you feel about the key issues that have been raised as a result of the work we have commissioned? Should clinical leadership should be a priority? And have any key points been overlooked in the debate? Your comments will help to inform the Inquiry’s final report.

Please share your views with us, and others, by leaving a comment below. However, if you’d prefer to comment privately please email gpinquiry@kingsfund.org.uk