How a policy leader built certainty with GPDocs
Cambridge Medical Centre
Wendy Harris, Business Manager
At a glance
The important stuff:
Shared ownership, family business
Business manager committed to quality and compliance
Team autonomy is prioritised as a way to support efficient care.
In a sentence: “Oh my word, I wish I’d known about this earlier”.
With her policy background, Wendy recognised that GPDocs offered something one person couldn’t. Legislative accuracy, and ongoing updates that a practice team couldn’t sustain on its own.
“You can write a policy for your practice, sure. But is it up to date with current law, AND with employment, AND with clinical guidelines? You just don’t have time in your day job to stay across it all.”
The problem
When Wendy joined her practice eight years ago, she faced a pile of outdated policies and a rapidly-approaching Foundation Standard assessment.
For three months she rewrote every policy. Being new to general practice, it helped her to develop a strong understanding — but revealed an in issue; staying on top of legislation and changes was an impossible task.
With a background in policy, and changes underfoot in the practice, she decided a complete reset was needed.
“I just decided I was going to throw all the old stuff out and start over again,” Wendy recalls. “I’d come from a policy and procedure background, so I knew how to write them. And I thought, if we’re doing this, we’re doing it properly.
“I did a financial summary — the hours it took me to write policies, my hourly rate, the time we pulled clinicians off the floor. Compared to the annual cost of GPDocs, it was a no-brainer. And the real value was knowing the content was right.”
Practice life with GPDocs
With GPDocs, Wendy could lead with peace of mind — focusing her energy on projects and service delivery rather than chasing compliance.
At first, staff would still knock on Wendy’s door with day-to-day questions.
“They’d ask about leave forms or what our standing orders were, and I’d just say, ‘It’s in GPDocs, go look it up.’ It took a little while, but once they realised everything really was in there — and easy to search — it stuck.”
The practice has gone one step further and is using GPDocs as a mandatory resource for staff induction and training. For the clinical team, the value was immediate.
“They loved that policies linked directly to other resources like training and health pathways. It wasn’t just a document on a shelf; it was connected to the way they actually worked.”
The result
With GPDocs in place, Wendy and her team quickly saw the difference:
Confidence: “If we’re ever audited, I feel confident. Everything is there.”
Time saved: “Foundation Standards are easy. What once took three months now takes a a few days.”
Clarity for staff: “New and existing staff know exactly where to find policies. The search function is fantastic.”
Stronger induction: “New staff spend their first day with GPDocs, working through the induction checklist and training modules. It makes onboarding seamless.”
“You’ve only got so much capacity. You’ve got to be smart about where you use your own brain, and where you trust experts. For us, GPDocs is that expert.”