As PMA prepares to launch its 2023 awards, we chat to Martin Randall of Leatside Surgery in Devon. He won the PMA Practice Business Manager of the Year at last year’s awards.
How do you start your day?
I am a morning person so set my alarm for 5.30am. This gives me time for breakfast, coffee, a run and time with my family before heading into work for 7.30. I’m lucky enough to live only ten minutes from work so don’t have to worry about the time lost with a commute. My morning starts with a catch up with my Operations Manager and Reception Team Leader at 7.45 to make sure we’re all ready for the day before heading to my office at 8am with a hot cup of coffee and a 2-litre bottle of water (which I make sure I drink during the course of the day).
No two days are the same. But what does a typical day look like for you?
Absolutely no two days are the same! Across the week I have scheduled meetings with my management team to run through HR, planning, complaints, operational processes and priority setting. I like to have an open door policy as I feel that communication with the team is the most important part of the role for me so a typical day will involve a number of unscheduled catch up with Partners and staff on a whole range of issues.
I feel it’s important to take the time to have personal conversations with the team as often as is practical as the buy in you get for taking an interest in someone is crucial when things become hard – loyal staff who know you care about them will invariably go the extra mile for you.
I try to empower my management team to take responsibility for the day to day running of their teams with my role providing overall strategy and support for them. This is crucial, as creating a culture of shared responsibility across the leadership team means that when we are not at work we can relax and enjoy our own time without interruptions from the surgery. I worry that too many of us allow intrusions from work into our personal life which can result in increased stress levels all round.
I regularly link in with our PCN Clinical Director and work with him on the overall PCN budget and financial planning as well as running the pharmacy and social prescribing teams for the PCN. I will invariably have meetings across with week at a system level in my role as the vice chair of our GP provider board in South Devon.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
The Partnership are incredibly supportive and allow me the freedom to run the surgery without micro-managing on a day-to-day basis. I link in with the Partners at a breakfast meeting each Wednesday and in between this I can get on with the day job. I really enjoy the variety in my role as one day I can be dealing with detailed planning at a surgery level and the next planning the system response to winter pressures with partners in secondary care and community services. I love that across my week I can spend time working with dozens of different people and really get a lift from seeing professionals excel in what are for all of us really challenging conditions.
What is the biggest challenge currently facing primary care?
The hardest part here is narrowing down the challenges! Right now, I’d say that financial pressures in the past 12 months have moved to a level we’ve not had to deal with. Increasing costs across the board, compounded by a terrible uplift to our NHS income means we are having to be ever more creative in the ways in which we seek to balance the books.
The second challenge we have is increasing patient demand in the face of what appears to be a media campaign to discredit the profession in the public eye. The amount of communication and engagement we have had to do to educate our patients has really ramped up in the past twelve months.
How do you relax and recharge?
Family and exercise! I’m very active and every day I will either run, cycle or play sport (hockey in winter, tennis in summer) – for some reason exercise gives me energy rather than taking it from me.
My six-year-old daughter is getting into Parkrun now so my wife and I take it in turns running the local route with her each week. Aside from that, the true love of my life is my campervan and we try and get away as a family every other weekend for a night or two for a digital detox and to reconnect with nature.
