By Nicola Hayward 

A million years ago, when I first started putting my thoughts down on paper, I wrote an article about all of the abbreviations we meet every single day which seem to be heightened in the NHS. See I’ve started already! It was actually a set of instructions I’d received that had set me on the literary path (or should I say, sent me over the edge).  The instructions were how to undertake a MIQUEST search (I told you I was old)  and this was in the days when you had to physically set your computer to run the data extraction directly – none of that lar-di-dah CQRS rubbish we have now –   but the instructions included a whole host of abbreviations that in the end I truly lost the will to live.

I ranted on about the 80’s when we had an FPC (Family Practitioner Committee) who sorted everything out for us from registrations to paying IOS (Items Of Service) – and you know what, we got paid what they said we were getting paid, notes arrived safely and efficiently, you could actually speak to a real person who wasn’t very far away from you and life was so much simpler.

Those were the days when doctors wrote in Lloyd George medical records on little cards – they could use their own abbreviations, such as TATT (tired all the time) or less common ones like PITA (pain in the a**e – for those difficult, heartsink patients!) but that’s not so PC these days.

Unfortunately, the FPC decided to change their headed paper and they became the FHSA (Family Health Services Authority) but for some reason, then dropped the A and just became FHS.  We then moved along a few years to the creation of the PCG (Primary Care Group) and when they got fed up, they became the PCT (Primary Care Trust) soon to be replaced by the CCG… yes, you know who they are! In the middle of all of this, the LMC (Local Medical Committee) stayed the same – obviously they liked their headed paper.

We’ve got PCC (Primary Care Commissioning) and we’ve all been through GPSoC with N3 and CoIN (Community of Interest Network?!) and apparently, BT deployed FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) which is something to do with superfast broadband… but now I’m reaching for the razors.   Crash forward a bit and we’ve all encountered CQC (let’s not go there) and I don’t need to tell you about NHSE, the BMA, the RCGP, the GPC, the GMC, MDU/MPS/MDDUS, QOF, DES/LES/NES  to name but a few.

However now it’s getting a bit more serious. Now we have the GPRP (General Practice Resilience Programme) with a VPP (Vulnerable Practices Programme) which will be headed by PMOs (Project Management Offices) and linked to STP (Sustainability and Transformation Plans), to help us stay above water.

Working collaboratively with local practices can be a life-saver (or at least keep you floating a little while longer) but of course you’ll need an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) and don’t forget your PPG (Patient Participation Group) who no doubt will come up with some great ideas!

The latest document to hit our already-full desks is the MCP Contract Framework (Multi-Specialty Community Providers) who will create NMC (New Models of Care).  The MCP will be aimed at large cohorts of patients running separately to GMS contracts.  You could, of course have a PACs (Primary and Acute Care system) instead of the MCP… or is that ‘as well as’… MCP could be GMS/PMS lumped together, or APMS, but if you do have an MCP, you’ll still have your original GMS contract – obviously!

I haven’t listed EVERY abbreviation that we encounter as managers in the NHS, there isn’t enough web space in the world for all of that. All I know is, it’s getting more and more difficult to keep all of these in our brains, along with everything else we’re dealing with to the point now, where all I can say is  WTF!

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