GP TechLead

Being a GP at the moment is not a popular profession. The perceived impression with the public is that we aren't doing any work and that we're just hiding in our surgeries. Media bashing and Daily Mail articles such as this  are fueling the hatred toward the profession at the moment. The government don't help - their new 'support package' aims to force face-to-face consults and demonise the bottom 20% of practices that don't see patients face to face. GP leaders have told practices to boycott this package and not give NHS England the information to vilify them. I imagine this won't be the last we hear about this package as several urgent BMA meetings are taking place regarding it's implementation.

Going back to my previous introductory  NHS pension post , employee contribution to the NHS pension was tiered dependant on your earnings. Below was the previous banding and employee contribution rates. 

You may have heard in the news that GPs are going to be getting a large money boost in the form of £250 million to help with the winter pressures. This hasn't been received very well by GPs and the BMA as they feel it's not enough and doesn't really solve one of the main issues in this, lack of doctors. I had a quick read through of the plan released by NHS England, and found some interesting points. You can have a full read of the plan here .

During the Covid-19 lockdown, the NHS was doing some big deals. One such deal was with Microsoft to provide all their staff with Office 365. This includes their email services but also 1TB cloud storage, video-conferencing software and importantly their suite of Office programs. This includes their well known MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more. This was agreed from the 15th June 2020 and will last until April 2023, though hopefully longer.  Those who have used these suite of programs recently may already know, but if you want to use the latest edition of Word, Excel or PowerPoint, you will now need an ongoing subscription. There is no longer a yearly release of these programs that you would purchase as a one-off, now you purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription that will allow you to download the newest edition of these programs. This allows you to use the online, desktop or mobile office apps. Personal subscriptions start at £59.99/year but with this NHS collaboration with Micros...

Previous I discussed the principles of Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) but there is more than one type of FIRE. There is a no one size fits all when it comes to financial independence.