Mersey Faculty

We support over 2,400 members, Fellows, GP registrars and students across Merseyside and Cheshire in their career and continued professional development. The Mersey faculty covers Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, Halton and St Helens, East and West Cheshire, and Isle of Man.

Get involved

Veteran friendly GP practices

We are working with NHS England to accredit GP practices as 'veteran friendly'. This programme supports practice to deliver the best possible care and treatment for patients who have served in the armed forces.

Over 2,000 GP practices in England are already accredited through this programme. We provide accredited practices with access to free online training, support them to identify and code their veteran patients, and offer advice on referrals. While each accredited practice must nominate a clinical lead, training content and activities are suitable for the whole practice to enhance your delivery of veteran healthcare.

To find out more information, please visit the Veterans' healthcare toolkit on our eLearning platform.

Our board

Our Faculty board meet four times per year in February, June, September and November, usually via Zoom. We rely on volunteers to play an active role locally, give views, feed in information from local groups and shape local general practice via the Mersey Faculty board. The board have a number of opportunities for you to become more active with the local faculty, for example: committees, council representatives, First5 lead, GP registrar lead, Education advisor and Officers of the board. If this is something you would consider then please contact us.

Peer groups

Merseyside, Cheshire and IoM

Peer groups, (or support groups), are run by local GPs to support other GPs. They offer support and advice to anyone in their region, hold small clinical CPD evenings, group chats to find best practice and offer general advice to anyone who needs it.

The group leads can be contacted at any time but often run scheduled sessions that you can attend. Please see below for your local lead.

• St Helens First5 Group:
  Dr Clare O’Toole & Dr Rachel Skelly
  sthelensprimaryenquiries@cheshireandmerseyside.nhs.uk 
• Knowsley support group:
  Dr Adit Jain
  adit.jain@knowsleyccg.nhs.uk
• Sef10 support group:
  Dr Raj Patel
  raj.patel4@nhs.net
• Warrington Non-Principal and F5 group:
  Dr Ipsita Chaterjee
  ipschat@gmail.com
• Chester sessional GP group:
  Dr Sarah Lazorowicz
  sarah.lazarowicz@googlemail.com

If you run a support group, please let us know.
RCGP Mersey can support with venue hire and speak fee costs.

Awards and prizes

Mersey Faculty Excellence in Primary Care Awards 2024

We are delighted to announce our series of awards to recognise excellence in primary care in Mersey. Awards are in the following categories:

• GP registrar award
• Practice team award
• GP award
• Team member award

For further information and how to nominate, please check our awards page.

Medical Student Poster Prize 2025

The RCGP Mersey Faculty is delighted to announce the Medical Student Poster Prize 2025. This prize is open to undergraduate medical students attending University in the Mersey Faculty Region, including University of Liverpool, Edge Hill University and University of Chester, in Year 3, 4 or 5 of study. We invite eligible students to submit an A1 Poster detailing an original research or quality improvement project they have undertaken in Primary Care on a Primary Care topic.

All prize winners will be invited to the RCGP Mersey Faculty Annual Awards Evening to be presented with their prize and certificate. Date and venue for the 2025 Annual Awards Evening to be confirmed for November 2025 in or near Liverpool City Centre.

For further information and how to nominate, please check our awards page.

The marking criteria for this prize can be found in the judging criteria and scoring guidelines (DOCX file, 101 KB).

Fellowship

Fellowship is an honor and mark of achievement recognising a significant contribution to:

• health and welfare of the community
• science or practice of medicine
• aims of RCGP, or any organisation which benefits general practice

Full details of applying for fellowship can be found at RCGP fellowship. If you are unsure about any part of fellowship or want to know more about the process, RCGP Mersey have a team of volunteers on hand who have been through the process themselves to answer your questions. Please contact us for more information.

Meet your faculty

Contact us

RCGP Mersey Faculty
The Outset
Sankey Street
Warrington
WA1 1NN

Email: mersey@rcgp.org.uk

Office opening hours: 08:00 to 15:00, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Closed Wednesdays.

Useful links

• Faculty byelaws (PDF file, 22 KB)