Patient care is being compromised because of the way in which the Care Quality Commission inspects practices, doctors say today. The demands of preparing for an inspection distract from time clinicians need for patient care, according to a survey. The British Medical Association survey out, this morning (29 January, 2016), found 80% of the 1,900…

She says it’s her hormones. She says that’s why she threw the calculator at the toilet door. From reception. She says her hormones make her angry. She says it was nothing to do with the patient that asked her if she was pregnant. When she is not. She says it’s her hormones. The patient then…

DISCIPLINARY HEARINGS AFTER A PROTECTED DISCLOSURE The recent case of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust v Beatt UKEAT/0136/15/JOJ has shown that an Employment Tribunal (ET) must analyse any evidence of conduct/ disciplinary issues even where an employee has made a protected disclosure. In this case, Mr Beatt had been employed as a consultant Cardiologist until…

An employee’s poor hygiene is not an easy subject to deal with, so here are our tips to help you tackle it effectively: (1) Deal with it now Human nature means that we all have a tendency to try and put off something we’re not looking forward to. However, you need to deal with the…

The GP shortage that pretty much all practice managers will have experienced in some form or another during their careers has been described as the “biggest challenge facing the NHS since its formation”. As there’s no miracle cure out there and no one person can fix the problem overnight, when a practice needs to recruit…

GP leaders have queried claims that there is a huge surge in patients losing ready access to a doctor because of closures and mergers. The figures show a continuing high level of practice closures. But they also show a huge increase in practice mergers last year. Some 41 practices were involved in mergers last year…

So this week’s rant is about overspending. Not my penchant for going online when insomnia kicks in but more about Primary Care overspend.  We often get letters requesting that we, i.e. Primary Care, reduce our spend on such things as prescribing, cut back on referrals, try to stop our patients accessing A&E because they can’t…