AISMA vice-chairman Deborah Wood has some advice for GPs on how to keep practice accounts in the black

Many GP partners worry about the potential loss of income from the global lump sum, QOF and enhanced services, with commentators predicting that many will need to take the drastic measure of cutting their drawings. Read more

Your patient feedback questionnaire shows dissatisfaction with waiting times and access. You realise that one FTE doctor per 2,000 patients is not enough. Should you recruit a new partner? AISMA accountant Liz Densley joins the debate. Read more

The latest issue of AISMA Doctor Newsline, the newsletter for GPs and practice managers, published by the Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants, is published today.

With practices all over the UK straining under the burden of increased workload and falling income, this issue has some welcome advice on how to survive the difficult times ahead.

Leading practice management expert Kathie Applebee kicks off the issue with her thoughts on how practices must tackle some common profit-sapping inefficiencies if they are to survive and develop in the new NHS landscape.

Tips to ease the profit squeeze are offered by several AISMA accountants to help practices looking for new ways to boost income and cut expenses.

With a GP recruitment crisis looming, AISMA Chairman Bob Senior explains why practices that fail to give time and attention to the issue of succession planning may be storing up trouble for the future.

Finally, specialist employment law solicitor Joanne White offers a quick guide to help GPs and their practice managers follow the correct procedures if they find themselves in the unhappy position of having to make staff redundant.

AISMA Doctor Newsline is available exclusively to clients of AISMA accountants.

Doctors wishing to contact their local AISMA accountant can find details on the find an accountant page of this website.

Practice rotas often come under pressure in the summer when partners take holidays, writes Bob Senior. Could working patterns be better controlled? Read more

The reduction in the lifetime allowance for pension savings from £1.5 million to £1.25 million announced in December 2012 could affect GPs who may have built up pension savings in excess of the limit. Some relief will be available though and on 10 June HM Treasury published a consultation document setting out how a new regime for protecting pension savings against tax charges is likely to work. Here AISMA accountant Luke Bennett summarises a new scheme to protect GPs’ pensions from the lifetime allowance charge. Read more

AISMA accountant Luke Bennett explains how new rules might disadvantage GPs using corporate partner arrangements.

In the Chancellor’s Budget speech on 20 March, George Osborne announced that he wanted to bring in new legislation ‘to stop the abuse of partnership rules’. HM Revenue & Customs have now issued a consultation document setting out the proposed changes to the tax rules on partnerships, with the intention that the changes will take effect from 6 April 2014. The proposals will result in a crackdown on GP partnerships that include a corporate member. Read more

At our accountancy firm we are finding that our practice managers are now frequently asking for help calculating increasingly complex drawings. There are several reasons why things are so much more complicated these days. The changes in the NHS and the pressure on GPs means more and more partners are taking 24-hour retirement and returning at a reduced share. Younger doctors are more inclined these days to decide that full time is too much for them.Partners today no longer look on partnership as a lifetime commitment. In simple terms there are two main ways of dealing with partners’ drawings. Read some advice from AISMA accountant Abi Newbury

As GPs start to look at draft accounts, new tax rules will complicate the pooling of income from CCG roles with other practice profits, says Bob Senior. Read more

GPs are taking drastic action to reduce their stress levels, with many cutting the numbers of sessions they are doing, changing practices or quitting general practice altogether, say medical accountants. Read more

How should you react when your GP partner isn’t coping?Three experts advise on the legal, practical and financial considerations. Read more