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A small(ish) rant by Nicola Hayward

Furious womanWell, there’s plenty enough for me to get annoyed this week (for a change!).  We all know that end of March/beginning of April is when the madness descends. End of year to sort, QOF figures to be finalised (meaning we’ve spent most of March ramming patients in left, right and centre) staff being on holiday (what is THAT all about?!) and added to this, I’ve had to deal with all the gubbins of a GP retiring and taking on another doctor in a different capacity. The paperwork for PCSE is nothing short of a small forest and they never respond to any emails I send them – so I’m assuming they’ve got the email that I sent at the end of January, but who knows! As for reallocating patients, well, they got that spreadsheet a few weeks ago, but again, who knows…

In the middle of all of this, I was tasked with writing up a bid for some funding – a project all to do with the ‘workflow optimisation’ scheme (part of the 10 high impact actions you’ll all be aware of) and it’s all very positive – or at least it was when I was chatting to the team of facilitators who could potentially organise the training for my practice and several others at the same time.  Lots of training at a much more cost effective price (economy of scale and all that) means of course maximum input for minimum output – so far, so happy bunny.  Cut then to finding out that the funding we’re getting is actually spread over five years so I’m only able to access a quarter of what I actually need to do the job properly. So now, not so happy bunny.

It comes as no surprise to those of us in the know, that funding always comes with strings – and this time, they’re really very short strings.  So when we hear on the news that Mr Hunt has arranged for a squillion pounds to be put into the NHS we know it’s a load of old tosh – or rather a squillion pounds is going to, yes, you guessed it, secondary care! Money might be there for us somewhere, but it’s hidden beneath a pile of bureaucracy and paperwork – only accessible by stealth and of course Joe Public thinks we’re actually getting the additional money we need, that finally the good old Government has listened, when in fact, of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

I don’t want to give up, I really do want to change things, for the better of course. I want the opportunity to train not only my team, but others as well and if we can do that with some sort of centrally based approach that means we’re all working towards the same goals, then isn’t that a good thing?  Training could be disseminated down to other teams, spreading the learning while saving the resource – and working together across practices could mean that we all learn more. However, this funding issue was a blow (was I being too optimistic?Probably) and I’m not quite sure how to make my next move.

Anyhoo, whilst I was pondering the ‘whys, wherefores, and how on earth….’ Anne Diamond popped up on my Twitter feed having upset pretty much every GP I follow as she had apparently stated on Sky News/TV that she didn’t know why GPs were stressed. She was quoted as asking how hard could it be to write out a prescription… Cue steam from yours truly… how very dare she make a comment about which she knows absolutely diddley squat!  She went on in her news item that when she visited her own GP they seemed very happy, it was a lovely environment to work in, couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Needless to say, numerous GPs tweeted her, as did I, to politely suggest she spends a day with her ‘happy’ GP to see what s/he has to put up with. I also asked for a retraction because she quite clearly was deluded. She hasn’t responded.

So yet again, we have a well-known face talking through their derriere about a system that they know nothing about, other than their encounters as a patient, or the parent of a patient. Sounds like she might have had lunch with Mr Hunt…

Yet again, I feel we’re fighting a losing battle – until the ‘faces’ come out and support us, and understand what’s really happening, Joe Public will believe the Daily Fail (who incidentally reported last week that swimming armbands could potentially expose children to some sort of carcinogenic gas… I know… cue yet another rant on Twitter from a bucket load of health professionals – what utter rubbish – the risk of drowning from not wearing armbands if you can’t swim is actually far higher – but you knew that, right?!)

Oh lord, I need a lie-down… ah, hang on… my Twitter feed has just gone mental… again…

Aaarrgghhh

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Nicola Davies

Practice Manager regularly ranting about the NHS. 35 years in Primary Care and still getting irritated by constant change for change sake! West Country Women Awards Nominee 2022 https://westcountrywomenawards.co.uk/

View all posts by Nicola Davies

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