Healthcare Republic rubbed shoulders with 160 or so nurse practitioners at their annual conference in Liverpool on Friday and Saturday - and what a fine setting it was.
The main hall at Aintree Racecourse is actually on the fourth floor of the main stand and has windows the entire length of one side looking out on to the historic course.
But this wasn't the only eye-opening view available over those two days.
Check out this week's GP for former GPC negotiator Dr Simon Fradd's thoughts (and figures) on how nurse practitioners could replace 88% of GPs.
Yes, 88%.
If you thought that unemployment was the biggest issue facing the GP profession, as GPC chairman Dr Laurence Buckman does, this view from one of his former colleagues (and co-architect of the new GMS contract) might set alarm bells ringing.
Tomorrow lunchtime Healthcare Republic invites you to debate this issue as we launch our Young GP Forum on this website.
The mood among those present at the Nurse Practitioner Association conference seemed to be that the profession needs accreditation before private providers truly make their mark on primary care.
As a journalist it baffles me why the DoH has dragged its heels over this issue for so long. Is it simply a question of cost to the taxpayer or does it conveniently leave the door open to private providers to employ nurse practitioners in name only at a fraction of the cost of either trained nurses or GPs? As a patient it sounds like something to worry about.
Elsewhere, a nurse practitioner who supervises FY2 doctors explained how she was treated by GPs during training days.
RCN chief executive and general secretary Peter Carter explained that much-criticised health minister Lord Ara Darzi was actually ‘a friend of nursing' because he had trained the first nurse endoscopist in the 1990s despite being accused of treachery by his colleagues.
Nurses didn't get off scott free - Mr Carter said they had been ‘politically naïve' to barrack former health secretary Patricia Hewitt two years ago.
Look out for more coverage from the conference, including how to set up a social enterprise to be commissioned to take on work from primary care organisations (PCOs), in the next edition of Independent Nurse dated 8 December.
On the Friday evening the assembled nurse practitioners were able to let their hair down to the sounds of an Abba tribute act.
Whatever your thoughts about nurse practitioners, there is no doubting their enthusiasm to take on more responsibility in primary care.
The question is: do you think nurse practitioners should replace GPs?
Will your answer be I Do, I Do, I Do or SOS?
neil.durham@haymarket.com