Cover of BJGP Interviews

BJGP Interviews

BJGP Interviews

By: The British Journal of General Practice
Listen for free

Season's Savings | 0.99 €/month for 3 months

5.99 €/month thereafter - terms apply. Cancel monthly.
Listen to BJGP Interviews for the latest updates on primary care and general practice research. Hear from researchers and clinicians who will update and guide you to the best practice. We all want to deliver better care to patients and improve health through better research and its translation into practice and policy. The BJGP is a leading international journal of primary care with the aim to serve the primary care community. Whether you are a general practitioner or a nurse, a researcher, we publish a full range of research studies from RCTs to the best qualitative literature on primary care. In addition, we publish editorials, articles on the clinical practice, and in-depth analysis of the topics that matter. We are inclusive and determined to serve the primary care community. BJGP Interviews brings all these articles to you through conversations with world-leading experts. The BJGP is the journal of the UK's Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). The RCGP grant full editorial independence to the BJGP and the views published in the BJGP do not necessarily represent those of the College. For all the latest research, editorials and clinical practice articles visit BJGP.org (https://bjgp.org). If you want all the podcast shownotes plus the latest comment and opinion on primary care and general practice then visit BJGP Life (https://www.bjgplife.com).Copyright 2026 The British Journal of General Practice Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease Science
Episodes
  • Does GP income meet expectations? The impact on job satisfaction

    Does GP income meet expectations? The impact on job satisfaction
    29 Sep 2026
    Today, we’re speaking to Dr Ben Walker, a post-doctoral associate based at the University of Calgary, who conducted this work while working at the University of Manchester.Title of paper: Relationships of actual and expected levels of income with GP job satisfaction: repeated cross-sectional studyAvailable at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2025.0683Recruitment and retention of GPs remains an issue for general practice in England. This work examined the relationship between actual income and income expectations with job satisfaction and intentions to quit. Higher actual income was found to be associated with job satisfaction, but there was little evidence to show that it was associated with intentions to quit. A key and novel finding was that higher income expectations were associated with both lower job satisfaction and higher intentions to quit. The findings suggest that policies that help GPs build accurate income expectations, such as increased transparency for incomes for different GP job roles, may be a means of addressing job dissatisfaction caused by discrepancies between expected and actual income for GPs.TranscriptThis transcript was generated using AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Please be aware it may contain errors or omissions.Speaker A00:00:01.040 - 00:00:58.350Hello and welcome to BJJP Interviews. I'm Nada Khan and I'm the Senior Research editor at the bjjp. Thanks for taking the time today to listen to this podcast.In today's episode we're talking to Dr. Ben Walker.Ben used to be based as a research fellow at the University of Manchester, but is now working as a postdoctoral associate at the University of Calgary in Canada.We here to talk about the paper he's just published in the BJ GP that's titled Relationships of Actual and Expected Levels of Income with GP Job Satisfaction. A Repeated Cross Sectional Study.So, hi Ben, it's really nice to meet you and to talk about this work and I guess to start us off, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the background to this paper and it's about GP income and job satisfaction, which is clearly a topic that people have plenty of opinions about. But what made you want to look at this question in a bit more detail?Speaker B00:00:58.590 - 00:02:08.930So, yeah, it's something we had been discussing internally as a team for a while, obviously, I mean, working in a primary care group, a lot of the driving motivation for a lot of our work is the GP recruitment and retention crisis. And we've always had, we've had this data for a while on GP income from us via our surveys.We've also had this data on GP income expectations and this has been in the survey forever and we've never, we hadn't used anything with it and basically because a lot of us are economists as well as this concept in economics of the Easterland Paradox or the idea that relative income matters more than actual income for happiness.And so we decided that, well, it would be like, like because we are interested in the GP recruitment and retention crisis, it would be interesting to look at the extent to which relative income matters for GP recruitment and retention. So job satisfaction and intentions to quit being two components of recruitment and retention.Speaker A00:02:09.330 - 00:02:14.290So you mentioned about a survey. So are you talking about the GP Work Life Survey that was done through Manchester?Speaker B00:02:14.370 - 00:02:17.130We are indeed, yeah. So the GP Work Life Survey.Speaker A00:02:17.130 - 00:02:28.110Yeah, yeah. So talk us through that just briefly. So what was that all about? I think, I mean there have been a few publications in the BJGP about it, but what.Who are you surveying through that?Speaker B00:02:28.590 - 00:03:18.400So the GP Work Life Survey has been going since I believe, 1998.It's been run by Manchester for I believe, all of its history and it's a government funded survey and when we do it we are attempting to a sample of the general GP population to basically ask about various things to do with their work life, including more sort of like formal things like their income and how many hours they're working, but also just how satisfied they are with their jobs, different aspects of their jobs. Yeah, so we collect lots of data on the GP to respond, and, yeah, we aim to get as general a sample of a population as we can.Speaker A00:03:18.800 - 00:03:40.000And I think one of the really interesting things about this study is that you're not just asking how much GPs actually earn, but how much they think they should earn.And you mentioned about this paradox that you're interested in in terms of health economics, and I wonder why you think that distinction is important between actual earnings and sort of relative earnings or how much people think they should earn.Speaker B00:03:40.990 - 00:04:21.630So I guess with a lot of things in life, and obviously from this economics paradox, a lot of things are not. It's not necessarily what you have. ...
    Show more Show less
    14 min
  • Diagnosing in the dark: recognising childbirth-related PTSD in general practice

    Diagnosing in the dark: recognising childbirth-related PTSD in general practice
    6 Oct 2026
    Today, we’re speaking to Dr Megan Foreman, a GP and NIHR Clinical Lecturer based at the University of East Anglia. Title of paper: Diagnosing in the dark: the childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder GP evidence gapAvailable at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2026.0269TranscriptThis transcript was generated using AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Please be aware it may contain errors or omissions.Speaker A00:00:00.320 - 00:00:58.460Hi and welcome to BJGP Interviews. I'm Nada Khan and I'm the Senior Research Editor here at the Journal. Thanks for taking the time today to listen to this podcast.In today's episode, we're speaking to Dr. Megan Forman, who is a GP and NIHR Clinical Lecturer based at the University of East Anglia.We're here to discuss the recent analysis piece that she and her team have published in the September issue of the Journal and it's titled Diagnosing in the Dark the Childbirth Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder GP Evidence Gap. So, hi, Megan, it's really nice to meet you and thanks again for joining us here to talk about this article.I suppose, to start with, could you explain a little bit more about what you mean by birth trauma and childbirth related PTSD? And I suspect that these are probably terms that GPs are not as familiar with that we should be.Speaker B00:00:59.310 - 00:01:46.360Yeah, thank you. So birth trauma is a broader term and that can be.So we're talking here about psychological birth trauma rather than physical birth trauma in the context that we're using it in. We're talking about people who have had a difficult, potentially a pregnancy experience or a birth experience.That's not just looking at birth itself. That can cause ongoing mental health issues and psychological concerns when we talk about PTSD after pregnancy and birth.So what's often referred to as childbirth related ptsd, those are people who meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD as a result of a trauma that was related to their experience from pregnancy or birth. So birth trauma is a broader term and then PTSD is a specific diagnosis.Speaker A00:01:46.520 - 00:02:14.480And we were talking just before we started about the wider reach of this work and how, um, it's been picked up more in the mainstream media. But you've also had people telling you about their stories as well.And what I find quite sad in a way is that there have been a number of reviews around inadequate care in women's health.And I'm really struck by some of the poor outcomes that you mentioned in the article, like high suicide rates in women postnatally as well, which is really shocking, actually.Speaker B00:02:14.880 - 00:03:14.130Yeah, I mean, you mentioned the people who I've spoken to.So I've had a really involved patient participation group with the work that I've been doing, and they've talked about their own experiences, even in situations where they've had really extreme birth complications. So, for example, a neonatal loss or severe physical injury, even in those circumstances, may have struggled to access support.I've also been contacted by a member of the public since the paper was published and since there was media interest in this, talking about her own experiences of birth almost 30 years ago and difficulty in dealing with that going forward. So it clearly is a big issue.It's also important to say that even if a birth looks straightforward medically on paper, it's still possible to develop birth trauma symptoms and indeed ptsd. So it doesn't have to be a birth with serious complications or a poor outcome for somebody to develop these symptoms.Speaker A00:03:14.620 - 00:03:37.180Yeah, and I think that's one of the things that really struck me in the article, is that birth trauma is very subjective and that these issues can happen like, just like you're saying, just after what might appear to have been or appears to be a medically uncomplicated birth. And I think that's probably really important for GPs to understand in terms of what this will look like when women present to their gps as well.Speaker B00:03:37.260 - 00:04:27.610Yes.And I think an important consideration is that when women keep referring to women, but I include in that people with other gender identities who have a baby, but when women go into pregnancy, they come to pregnancy with all of their past experiences.And we know that people who have had difficult previous experiences, so for example, intimate partner violence, previous adverse childhood experiences, substance abuse or pre existing mental health problems, these people are particularly at risk of developing PTSD after birth. And it can be something that develops after what looks like a normal birth on paper.So it's really important that we consider birth trauma and PTSD in people, even when it appears that the birth is straightforward and that we still are inquiring about these symptoms to make sure that they're identified.Speaker A00:04:27.850 - 00:04:40.970And we'll come back ...
    Show more Show less
    21 min
  • Local incentives and general practice: what does the evidence show?

    Local incentives and general practice: what does the evidence show?
    13 Oct 2026
    Today, we’re speaking to Matt Conroy. Matt is a PhD fellow at the University of Manchester and also works for NHS Greater Manchester (ICB) as the Head of Primary Care Intelligence. Title of paper: Impact of local enhanced incentive schemes on the performance of general practices within the United Kingdom: a systematic reviewAvailable at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2025.0377Most local commissioning bodies in England, known as Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), have developed their own additional local pay-for-performance (P4P) incentive schemes alongside the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). To our knowledge this is the first review to date to summarise existing evidence on the scope and effectiveness of local incentive schemes implemented in general practice in the UK with a focus on the indicators and their alignment with national schemes.TranscriptThis transcript was generated using AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Please be aware it may contain errors or omissions.Speaker A00:00:00.480 - 00:01:01.140Hi and welcome to BJGP Interviews.I'm Nada Khan and I'm the Senior Research Editor here at the bjgp.Thanks for taking the time today to listen to this podcast.Today we're talking to Matt Conroy.Matt is a PhD fellow based at the University of Manchester and he also works for NHS Greater Manchester ICB as the Head of Primary Care Intelligence.We're here to talk about the paper he's recently published in the bjgp, which is titled the Impact of Local Enhanced Incentive Schemes on the Performance of General Practices within the United A Systematic Review.So, hi, Matt, it's really nice to meet you and to talk about this work and I wonder if, just to start with, if you could explain a bit about what we mean by local incentive schemes in general practice and why you wanted to look at them, and I wonder if you wanted to draw a little bit on your additional role working for the Greater Manchester ICB as well here.Speaker B00:01:01.220 - 00:01:54.400Thanks.I guess by a local deep incentive scheme, we mean something that's kind of locally designed or locally commissioned within a ICB footprint to try and address any particular population health challenges or local nuances that go over and above national policy, things like the Quality and Outcomes Framework.I guess what was really insightful for us through doing this piece of work was actually through an FOI that we undertook.Like 90, 98% of ICBs actually have their own local gene for incentive schemes, but we only identified 17 schemes through the published literature, the last one being from 2018.So getting on for 10 years ago, and the fact that we know that so many ICVs are doing these things, but there's not the evidence body there, there's not the learning and sharing of best practice to really inform policy and help ICVs all try and address their local challenges.Speaker A00:01:55.210 - 00:02:10.650Yeah.And you've mentioned qof and I guess a lot of people are really familiar with qof, and as you mentioned, there are lots of local schemes sitting alongside it.And I wonder if you have an idea of just what sort of things they're trying to incentivize, just from sort of the background to your work.Speaker B00:02:11.210 - 00:04:48.850Yes.So, as part of my day job, I help design and deliver the local GP incentive scheme in Greater Manchester.It's roughly valued about £17 million for this year.And I think what we try to do is use QOF as a bit of a body of evidence, but also look at a lot of our local and national data to really highlight where we think we can make a difference with these local incentive schemes.So, for the 26, 27 financial year, we've done a piece of work to really home in on CBD and diabetes as one area, respiratory as another area, elective care.So we can get the interface between primary and secondary care and also antimicrobial stewardship.I think one of the things that's really fleshed out from that is the impact of non attenders on things like qof.So through qaff, if patients have two or one invites seven days apart, they automatically get exception reported if they don't necessarily attend.But what we found through our local data is actually there's a really strong link between those people and actually poorer CBD control and wide use of healthcare systems.So.So through our local GP insentive scheme, we've really designed almost a narrow cohort that looks at people's individual disease control, looking at things like blood pressure, HbA1c, but also where people haven't attended a review in more than 18 months.So really trying to hone in on specific cohort, acknowledging that those people are really difficult to engage with by proxy.The fact that they've had two invites and not responded.But actually through having a local GP incentive scheme that really highlights these as a specific target cohort group and having dedicated funding alongside it, we can see that from our QOF data, we've had a reduction in exception reporting and ...
    Show more Show less
    20 min
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet