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people | interview
First in line Verity Shelton, practice manager of the Blue Dykes Surgery in Chesterfield, must be doing something right because she has been asked to pilot general practice initiatives before they are rolled out to the rest of the country. Julia Dennison visits her to find out her experience of trialing CQC registration and the 111 number
Verity Shelton is a busy – albeit experienced – practice manager. She has worked in primary healthcare for going on 27 years – 22 of which as a practice manager and knows what she’s doing, maintaining a level head while juggling her work at the busy Blue Dykes Surgery in Chesterfield with life as a parent of four, all while finding time to bake, offering me a slice of her delicious bread and butter pudding cake she made that morning when I sit down to talk with her. “This is a really good practice,” Shelton says of Blue Dykes. “They’re very familyorientated; they’re very staff-orientated as well, so the patients get a very good service. It does work well.” She has much experience to base this on, having worked at seven GP practices in her time. In her experience, the role of practice manager has become more challenging with time, with larger workloads to contend with. Much like GPs, who as generalists seek support from their specialist colleagues, so too, she believes, should practice managers reach out to each other around topics like building maintenance,
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practicebusiness.co.uk | march 2012