Well, here we are, Christmas already! Where did that year go? When my kids were little, the year went in batches of six to eight week terms – no sooner had the little buggers gone back to school, than it seemed I was sorting out childcare for holidays again and yet now, the weeks are still flying by.  Is it because we’re that much busier – not only at work, but at home too?

I spend a piece of each day trawling through emails, some of which have minutes from locality and county-wide CCG meetings – most of it full of doom and gloom, a retrospective of the year just gone (The Ghost of NHS Past no doubt!)…where are we now (i.e. in the poop…) and what the hell is going to happen next year.  As one set of notes put it, “the landscape of General Practice is changing…”  and what on earth are we going to do to deal with that change? We don’t even know for sure what the change is going to be or what it’s even going to look like.

Some smaller practices face the possibility of merging with other practices – but that doesn’t necessarily mean a ‘like-for-like’ merge. That small practice could be swallowed up by a larger practice nearby – will that mean you lose your sense of individuality? How will your patients cope with not seeing a familiar face? We know that the days of seeing ‘your GP’ are long gone, but for some patients, that continuity is important – it doesn’t matter that another GP can see your notes and easily be brought up to speed with what’s been going on. For that patient, that same face is as comforting as a pack of Fluoxetine. For some patients, a prescription isn’t even necessary, it’s just a chat with an old friend who sits and listens BUT we haven’t got time for that any more, more’s the pity. It’s all ticking boxes and remembering to fill in the right pro forma, otherwise that nameless, faceless referral you’ve sent will be rejected!

So, we move forward, we adapt to change because that’s what we’ve had to do over the past couple of decades as the Government took us through the first White Paper that I can recall (must do health checks… remember that?!) fundholding, then no fundholding, the new contract (“High Trust/Low Bureaucracy”…yeah right!)  there was a change in how we provided Out of Hours, we have QOF, enhanced services… and what else will they throw at us?

There’s no doubt about it, Primary Care is changing faster than any other area of the NHS – and we’d better jump on board if we want to stay ahead of the game (or at least keep up!). And here we are on the verge of 2016, and still juggling at least four different balls while trying to stay sane.

There’s only ONE thing you can be sure of… I will continue to vent my spleen on whatever they chuck at us next…

Roll on 2016! Merry Christmas and my best wishes to you all for a happy and healthy New Year.