Dr Farine Clarke is a qualified GP, with a career in publishing and business management. Farine qualified from St George’s Hospital Medical School in 1986 and did the St Helier Hospital three year vocational training scheme, working in general practice in South London. She moved into medical journalism in 1990 and initially worked at Pulse newspaper. In 1989 she was made Editorial Director at Haymarket publishing and in that role edited GP newspaper. This weekly medical, political and financial title was circulated to all 38,000 UK GPs and GP trainees (now GP registrars). Farine was also responsible for Medeconomics, known as the monthly ‘financial bible’ for GPs and MIMS (a prescribing directory). After two years as Publishing Director with commercial responsibility for the titles, she became Managing Director in 1997 with full
responsibility for the P&L of the magazines. In 2001 Farine became Managing Director of Archant Specialist Publishing again with full responsibility for sixteen weekly and monthly newstrade titles. She is married to a consultant psychiatrist who is now fulltie in private practice, and uses much of her business expertise to help him to run his practice and staff more effectively. Farine understands that her husband and many of her ex-medical colleagues have little formal training in business principals and staff management and require guidance to help them be more successful. Having worked with Laurence for many years the idea for the book came out of a general discussion about the pitfalls which face medical practitioners and the need to address these.

Laurence Slavin is a chartered accountant and has been a partner with Ramsay Brown and Partners for more than 20 years. His practice specialises in advising and working with GPs and GP practices. Currently Laurence’s practice has more than 500 GP practices on his firm’s books and advises more than 2,500 GPs. Laurence was a specialist advisor to the former NHS Management Executive for ten years, and served as an advisor to the Department of Health sitting on the Pensions Sub-committee during the negotiations over the 2004 New Contract. Since 1989 he has been writing a regular column in GP magazine and Medeconomics, advising GPs on financial and practice management. Laurence lectures regularly to GPs, practice managers and GP registars on matters of personal and practice finance both in the UK and overseas. He has appeared as an expert witness in a number of legal civil actions involving GPs. Laurence is married to a GP.