Inquiry into the quality of general practice: clinical leadership

GPs are often looked up to as key leaders and opinion formers within their local communities, ensuring that local health issues are addressed, influencing how health resources are spent, and contributing to the local media.

But it appears that the younger generation of GPs is less interested in taking on these roles.

What did we explore?

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 author is Richard Giordano, Senior Lecturer, School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton and a former Senior Consultant, Leadership, at The King's Fund.

What have we learnt about clinical leadership by GPs?

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?