Doctors working in GP jobs shouldn´t be wary of delegating the treatment of ´less well´ patients so they can concentrate their efforts more fully on those who are seriously ill, it has been suggested.

Deputy director of policy at the King´s Fund, Candace Imison, says it is well within a GP´s remit to think ´creatively´ about how to manage the differing needs of all the patients who walk through their surgery.

She told a King´s Fund meeting on workforce that alternative working systems such as telehealth and the use of practice nurses are perfectly acceptable in order to free up GP time for patients with the most serious needs.

"There are ways of looking at the workload that general practice has to manage and putting the GP workload more clearly aligned to their sickest patients, their patients with greatest needs and then using nurses and healthcare assistants to manage the more routine needs of patients," said the expert.

Copyright © Press Association 2011

Last Christmas Day a member of the Medacs team lost their mum to sepsis – or blood poisoning.

The UK Sepsis Trust http://www.sepsistrust.org, led by CCU Consultant Dr Ron Daniels, does a terrific job of raising awareness of this condition and how to respond to it. We’re urging all healthcare professionals, and GPs in particular, to visit their website to find out more.

A specialist training course developed by Medacs Healthcare to keep its Forensic Physicians at the cutting edge of best practice has been accredited by the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians.

The independent evaluation recognises the course successfully develops the core skills of Forensic Physicians and means participants gain six CPD points on completion.

The Faculty assesses courses against a range of core competencies for professionals practising in Forensic and Legal Medicine. CPD points are awarded for each hour of course content judged to fall within the qualifying criteria.

Nigel Marsh, Chief Executive of Medacs Healthcare said: “This is excellent news for Medacs Healthcare, and for our clinicians and bank staff. I’d like to thank the team for putting together such an excellent course, and to congratulate them on this achievement.”

Andrew Preston, Managing Director of Healthcare Services, added: "As the largest provider of forensic medical services to Police Authorities across the UK, it’s essential we keep the skills of our clinicians up to date. I am delighted our work in this area has been independently recognised.”

The accreditation builds on the success of the company’s induction course which has already been recognised by the Faculty.