Plexus Support Services began its journey in the summer of 2007 by setting up a buying group for several hundred GP practices in the East Midlands. Our original mission of saving practices time and money on the products and services they buy is still very much at the heart of what we still do today. Over the next ten years, we expanded the service to include GP practices in the rest of the UK and also to dentists and independent pharmacies. We also now offer the service to the care sector.
In 2015, we turned our attention to the wellbeing of the GPs in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire as we saw that there were high levels of burnout in the profession. We asked GPs what they would find helpful and one of the most popular responses was access to a coaching and mentoring service. So we developed a service of peer mentors/coaches for GPs who needed support with personal or professional development including being stuck on moving forward with problems or opportunities. We now also manage coaching and mentoring services for healthcare professionals in Suffolk and North East Essex, Mid and South Essex, Norfolk and Waveney, Sheffield and South Yorkshire as well as providing coaching and wellbeing training.
By the start of 2019, we had noticed that other kinds of workforce support for general practice in Nottinghamshire were disjointed so we set about creating a single point of access. We created workforce support schemes and fellowships for GPs from trainees to the soon to be retired as well as returners who had been away from the profession for a while. We now also support the non-clinical workforce with fellowships, training and resources.
We are passionate about our mission to support health and social care providers with their business finances and also improving workforce and wellbeing support for their staff. However, we know that health and social care aren’t the only sectors struggling with rising costs and challenges with recruitment and retention so we’re always open to talking to other businesses and organisations to see if we can help them too!
