About Me

A large successful GP practice in Semi-rural South Cheshire covering 24K patients. We do well in patient surveys and are leaders of the local health economy with a range of innovative services provided from our building.

A new three way venture between Mid Cheshire Hospital NHS Trust, Cheshire & Wirral Partnership Trust and the South Cheshire and Vale Royal GP Alliance who won the £27M contract to provide community services (nursing, physio, SALT, podiatry etc) in south Cheshire and Vale Royal. Each organisation has 2 clinicians and 1 manager on the main board. Im one of the 2 clinicians representing the GP Alliance. I also chair the IMT sub group.

Howbeck Healthcare is a company started by Mike Pyrah (ex CECPCT CE) and myself to do several things.
1. to set up and support GP federations
2. to provide consultancy services particularly to primary care
3. to offer market access and understanding to companies (particularly IT ones) that want to work with primary care
4. to find co-creators or partners for innovative ideas either research or commercial that we feel would benefit the NHS in particular primary care.

I write a monthly opinion piece for http://www.digitalhealth.net/ the leading UK website on Healthcare related IT issues.

My column covers IT issues relating to general practice.

Howbeck Healthcare helped set up this GP Alliance and I’m a Board member on it. My own GP practice is in its catchment area and is a member. It is a Federation of practices operating under a not for profit constitution trying to 1. improve services for patients, 2. standardise and harmonise care amongst member practices and 3. sustain and transform general practice to meet the needs of the modern NHS. see www.scvr.org.uk

I am part of a team who have successfully bid for two ESRC funded PhD students, one of which is a case studentship. I am co-supervising the first student through a 1+3 doctoral programme and assisting in the recruitment of the second student, who I will also co-supervise through a +3 doctoral programme model.

In September 2014 we successfully bid for a ULMS internal pump-priming fund to work with the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital on a project entitled: Cultural mapping of the patient experience at the New Royal Liverpool Hospital. This study is now under-way.

I co authored a piece that was presented at the QUIS Services Marketing conference in Shanghai June 2015. This paper explored feedback and the patient experience in primary care.

I’m helped the school of management and medical school create a bespoke PG training package for GPs/Practice Managers.

I have written and launched >10 iPhone and iPad apps mainly aimed at health care professionals that are available and selling worldwide. e.g. A2Z of Dermatology, iCalcRisk, iMCQs in Dermatology, iMCQs in Physiology, iMCQs in General Medicine and most recently Xrays4Medics and the free Prep4finals. I have some patient facing apps including A2ZZZ of Hypnosis with Dr Andrew Doyle a medical hypnotherapist.

I also offer an IT consultancy service through this company and have done talks on topics such as Data quality, Health Informatics, Apps and General Practice IT.

I have setup eCommerce websites for clients who dropship and retail and I provide advice to numerous companies looking to enter the healthcare IT market.

I have setup and run a primary care clinical trials unit in my practice operating through a hub and spoke model with other practices. I act as the principal investigator, we now employ 2 full time research nurses and have other practices working as co-investigators or as pick sites. One of our sites has grown and now acts as PI on some of its own studies. We are a RCGP research ready practice, we are part funded by the PCRN(NW) & CLRN and 85% of the studies we do are network studies. We do work with some companies direct. I have spoken at PCRN Conferences on why more practices should get involved in research.