Kate Francis - Practice Manager

Kate Francis BSc (Hons) in Social Policy 1981. Diploma in Health Service Management 1984.

Kate Francis has extensive health care experience in primary care, in secondary care and as an advisor at a national level. She ran one of the first national waiting list initiatives for plastic surgery, and also has experience in hospital and primary care premises commissioning. She worked part time, as an Advisor to the Department of Health between 2009 and 2011. She is currently an advisor for NICE. 

Taking a keen interest in the “wider picture” Kate likes to work across organisational boundaries, for example she is currently leading a working group for a local consortium to develop services across a number of practice to improve 24/7 access to General Practice for patients. Kate has many changing interests including research, teaching and development. She was a key person in establishing and maintaining the research unit within the practice. She worked with colleagues, to set up a development course for Practice Managers with the University of the West of England. She is a member of the Steering Group for the Practice Management Conferences run annually by Veale Wasbrough Vizard.

She became hooked on primary care as the most exciting, dynamic and progressive part of the NHS and feels this is where she can have most influence on patient care and work closely with front line clinicians which she enjoys. She sees her role as a strategic practice manager and as working with the partners to develop the practice and to provide high quality services to patients. She is the Registered Manager for CQC at the practice.

Kate is married to a teacher who works in a boarding school in Somerset. She lives about 8 miles outside Bath and enjoys riding the horse shared with her two daughters. She is also passionate about Cornwall and spends quite a lot of time there body boarding, having tried, but failed to learn to use a surf board. She also enjoys the theatre and cinema.