Equality and diversity: Pregnancy and maternity

Dr Nish Manek is a GP registrar and Health Education England Leadership Fellow. She founded and runs the national Next Generation GP programme, which has trained over 2,150 young GP leaders. Nish was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to GP leadership in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

“I’ve felt proud to work in an increasingly female-dominated specialty, and this demographic shift will only continue. For me, as a relatively new mum, I hope that general practice can maintain its reputation for being a family friendly career going forwards.

“Lots of young GPs I know worry about balancing childcare with the long days in practice, and I think we risk losing a lot of excellent colleagues if we don’t think about how to create a more flexible work pattern. This flexibility can be a huge asset to the profession, and if we think carefully about how to combine this with meeting the needs of our patients, we can be an example to other specialties in terms of recruitment and retention. The shift to remote working in recent months could also help with new job plans that allow parents to also be present in the way they wish to at home, whilst still maintaining sufficient access for patients.”