RCGP Scotland

We would like to thank all GPs and practice staff for their hard work on the frontline during this difficult time. As a College, we are continually updating our resources and guidance for members on the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, please visit our dedicated Coronavirus webpage.

What we do

Our work includes:

  • Developing initiatives on behalf of members in Scotland
  • Commenting on how UK initiatives and developments will affect Scottish general practice
  • Ensuring that RCGP Scotland continues to be a leading player in primary care development within Scotland
  • Listening to and working with patients, external agencies and members to help deliver the highest standards of general medical practice and excellence in patient care.

How we work

We have four key committees:

  • Scottish council is the main, democratically elected governance committee, which develops and takes forward strategy for RCGP Scotland
  • The Executive Committee is made up of the five Scottish Faculty Chairs (or their nominated representatives) which advises Officers outside of Scottish Council meetings and provides feedback and input from local Faculties.
  • RCGP Scotland AiT and First5 committee was formed in January 2016 as one of the governance committees of RCGP Scotland. The committee consists of one AiT and one First5 representative from the five Scottish faculties, and was established with the purpose of representing and promoting the voice of AiTs and First5s in Scotland, working closely with RCGP Scotland and Scottish Council.
  • RCGP Scottish Patient Forum represents the patient voice in Scotland, developing ideas and leading activities that encourage GPs to work in partnership most effectively with patients and the public.

RCGP Scottish council

The RCGP Scottish council is made up of GP members across Scotland. Each of the five Faculties - East, North, North East, South East and West - nominate their own Faculty Board members to be representatives at Scottish council with the Chair of each Faculty. There are also member representatives appointed for specific GP groups - AiT and First5. Scottish council is the main, democratically elected governance committee, which develops and takes forward strategy for RCGP Scotland.

Scottish council meetings take place on a quarterly basis with the Annual General Meeting being held in November. All members are entitled to attend the council meetings as observers and should declare their intention to attend by emailing the Scottish Office.

Officers

  • Dr Chris Provan, Chair
  • Dr Chris Williams, Deputy Chair (Policy)

Faculty Representatives

North East Scotland Scottish Council Reps – Dr Margaret Denison & Douglas Naismith
North East Scotland UK Council Rep – Dr Margaret Denison
 
South East Scotland Scottish Council Reps –  Dr Babar Akbar
South East Scotland UK Council Rep – Dr Sian Tucker
 
West Scotland Scottish Council Reps – Dr Issmael Fergague & Dr Chris McHugh
West Scotland UK Council Rep – Dr Mary Anne Burrow
 
East Scotland Scottish Council Reps – Dr Scott Jamieson & Dr Simon Austin
East Scotland UK Council Rep – Dr Munro Stewart
 
North Scotland Scottish Council Reps – Dr Daniel Simpson 
North Scotland UK Council Rep – Dr Chris Williams

Ballot Members

2021-2024 – Dr Sigi Joseph

2021-2024 – Dr Alasdair Forbes

2022-2025 – Dr Stuart Blake

2022-2025 – Dr Mary Anne Burrow

2023-2026 – Carey Lunan

2023-2026 – Kerri Neylon

 

Additional Members

Undergraduate Medical Education – Dr Kevin McConville

 

Climate & Sustainability – Dr James Morton

 

Ex Officio Members

Chair, AiT and First5 Committee – Dr Gorkem Hamali

RCGP President – Professor Dame Clare Gerada

Chair, RCGP Council – Professor Kamila Hawthorne

Observers

Academic – Professor Lindsey Pope

NHS Education for Scotland – Dr Nitin Gambhir

Chair, RCGP Scottish Patient Forum – Sonia Cottom

Individual Expertise – Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie

Deputy Chair, RCGP Scotland AiT and First5 Committee – Dr Akram Hussain

Chair, Scottish GP Committee – Dr Andrew Buist

Contact us

If you have any queries about RCGP Scottish Council, you can direct these to ScottishC@rcgp.org.uk

RCGP Scotland AiT and First5 Committee

The RCGP Scotland AiT and First5 committee was formed in January 2016 as one of the governance committees of RCGP Scotland.

The committee consists of one AiT and one First5 representative from each of the five Scottish faculties.

The committee was formed as a sub-committee of RCGP Scottish Council, which it reports directly to and is governed by. The aim of the committee is to give a voice to the future of general practice by discussing areas of policy and membership that directly affect AiTs and First5. The Chair and Deputy Chairs of the committee are members of Scottish Council.

The committee welcomes any input from members across Scotland and can be contacted at: infoscotland@rcgp.org.uk

If your query is specific to one particular faculty or individual, please include this in the subject line so that it can be appropriately dealt with.

The RCGP Scotland AiT and First5 Committee is as follows:

  • Chair - Dr Gorkem Hamali
  • Deputy Chair - Dr Akram Hussain
  • North East AiT Representative - Dr Mohammad Hashir Moeen
  • North East First5 Representative - Dr Douglas Naismith
  • South East AiT Representative - Dr Cameron Kennedy
  • South East First5 Representative - Dr Katherina Tober
  • West AiT Representative - Dr Akram Hussain
  • West First5 Representative - Dr Gorkem Hamali / Dr Issmael Fergague
  • East AiT Representative - Dr Katie Jobling
  • East First5 Representative - Dr Golnessa Masson / Dr Paula Roberts
  • North AiT Representative - Dr Duncan Brown
  • North First5 Representative - Dr Daniel Simpson

Anticipatory care planning in care homes

Dr Andrew Mackay is a previous winner of the RCGP Bright Ideas Award for his work on supporting the creation of high quality ACPs within care homes. The COVID-19 pandemic has in many ways made these often difficult, but hugely valuable discussions, more difficult to undertake. The following resources aim to support GPs with carrying out high quality Anticipatory Care Planning conversations with care home residents both in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Deep end project

The Scottish Deep End project was established in 2009, inspired by pioneering Welsh GP, Dr Julian Tudor Hart and his work on the inverse care law. General Practitioners at the Deep End work in general practices serving the 100 most deprived populations in Scotland, based on the proportion of patients on the practice list with postcodes in the most deprived 15% of Scottish data zones. The Deep End movement has now spread across the UK and beyond. Their key focus areas are: workforce, education, advocacy and research. More information on our projects, publications, podcasts and more can be found on the Deep End website. See also our active Twitter feed @deependGP. The current chair is Dr Carey Lunan and current academic lead is Dr David Blane.

Leadership for integration

Leadership for integration is a package of leadership development support for primary care and social care professionals to support them in delivering the integration agenda.

You as a Collaborative Leader

We are excited to announce that another cohort of the popular Leadership for Integration programme, You as a Collaborative Leader (YaCL), will be running again in Autumn 2023. YaCL is a programme for health and social services professionals working in integration to develop the skills and knowledge to lead effectively across integrated settings.

YaCL is an interactive learning programme comprised of a mix of self-directed learning, reflective practice, online workshops, smaller online peer thinking groups, and 1:1 coaching. YaCL will take place over four months between September 2023 - December 2023.

For further information, please visit the NHS Scot website.

Returning to General Practice in Scotland

To help GPs who have been out of active practice or who have been working outside the UK and are considering returning to work in Scottish General Practice, NHS Education Scotland offers the Scotland GP Returner programme and the Scotland GP Enhanced Induction Programme. You may be eligible for either programme which will be tailored around individual learning needs assessments. These programmes are funded by the Scottish Government, providing applicants with a salary to support them whilst on the programme. More information about the programmes and other important information is available on the NHS Education for Scotland's National Returner Programme.

Certificate in the Management of Problem Drug Use

RCGP Scotland has re-launched its well-regarded two-part course designed to assist primary care professionals help and care for people affected by drug use. The revised course focuses on a holistic approach to helping people who use drugs, their families, and communities, including new priorities and changes in management and treatment. The ethos of the course is to promote reducing harm and drug deaths within a recovery-focused framework. Find out more and register for the course.

RCGP Scotland publications

GP recruitment – non GP trainee survey report

In addressing the challenges of recruitment and to meaningfully promote general practice as a career, it is important to have as wide an understanding as possible of the factors which influence doctors' choice of specialty. To add to the existing evidence and broaden our understanding of why current Specialty Trainees in Scotland did not choose general practice, RCGP Scotland conducted a survey in 2017 to explore what had influenced their choice of specialty.

The results from this survey once again highlight the importance of the experience at undergraduate and foundation training levels in influencing career choice. It further emphasises how attachments to general practice are essential to enhancing GP recruitment and how we, as GPs, can significantly influence recruitment to our specialty.

Primary / Secondary Care interface working

A poorly functioning interface can have an adverse impact on the efficiency of the healthcare system. Through various methods of research a number of factors adversely impacting on interface working were identified. These include:

  • The absence of formal processes or support to gather data (for example, from Significant Event Analyses) to encourage two-way learning and information sharing, which could potentially bring about wider system improvements
  • The loss of inter-professional relationships resulting in less functional communication between primary-secondary care
  • The presence of incompatible and unreliable IT systems adversely impacting the ability to share clinical data efficiently and safely

In early 2018, RCGP Scotland gained support and funding through the Scottish Government Improving General Practice Sustainability Advisory Group for a three-year project to support the establishment or development of primary-secondary care Interface Groups in each Health Board area.

In recognition that different Health Boards and HSCPs vary in their approach, their culture, their geography and their experience of interface, a flexible and tailored approach, rather that a 'one size fits all' will be taken. It is intended that these groups, in collaboration with key others in their local areas, will offer a clinician-led, solution-focused approach to addressing interface issues relevant to them.

In addition, improving interface working is an important facet of the new GMS contract, and College input in the Improving General Practice Sustainability Advisory Group has been instrumental in promoting this view. The contract document states:

"Improving interface working: to ensure effective working between primary and secondary care, we will continue to implement the recommendations of the Improving General Practice Sustainability Advisory Group as set out in its report on November 2016.

"Within the recommendations there are a number of broad themes including effective primary and secondary care interface working. Interface working will be better achieved through well-functioning primary and secondary care interface groups. These groups will support NHS Boards and HSCPs to reduce GP workload and provide a better patient experience by removing the need for GP involvement when it is not clinically necessary."

BMA / RCGP Scotland Joint Principles Statement "Whole System Working - The Interface in Scotland"

In November 2020, the BMA and RCGP Scotland produced a joint principles statement (PDF file, 580 KB) to set out the key principles required to achieve effective whole systems working.

To support Interface Groups or other groups with an interface remit, we have developed a pack of support materials that will be amended and added to over the time of the project. Currently the support pack includes:

These documents are to provide a basic generic outline and can be taken and amended by Interface Groups to make them relevant in their local area. If there are other materials that you would find useful, please email scotland.interface@rcgp.org.uk and we will do our best to support this.

We are very keen to develop a virtual support network of Interface Group Leads across Scotland to encourage the effective sharing of learning. We have produced newsletters giving an update on how the project is progressing and useful links to useful resources and tried to follow up with Webinars, but are currently looking at new ways of sharing learning more efficiently.  

Local Faculties

In addition to a base in Edinburgh, the College in Scotland is represented through five regional faculty offices in:

Useful links

Contact us

RCGP Scotland
1st Floor, 38 Thistle Street
Edinburgh
EH2 1EN

Email: infoscotland@rcgp.org.uk
Telephone: 020 3188 7730

Join the RCGP member forum