I am lucky enough to live in a very pretty little fishing village in Cornwall – fabulous for walking the dogs on the beach morning and night, but the downside is the huge number of tourists who slowly amble their way through the village (in the middle of the road I might add) because they have all the time in the world. Meanwhile I’m trying to drive my car down said road trying to (narrowly) avoid the tourists – it’s not great for your licence if you hit someone apparently!

I don’t begrudge the tourists and their pooches sharing the village with us, but I have noticed that the amount of poop that doesn’t get scooped is worse at holiday periods, than at other times. I know, your questioning my reasoning aren’t you… this doesn’t really have much to do with Primary Care I agree, but as I was scooping this morning (in the dark by head torch!) I then rambled into a train of thought about scooping other people’s poop at work (metaphorically speaking of course!). Weird I know, but stick with me – I am making a point!

It is, it seems, a necessary evil of our role that we inevitably sort out other people’s messes – whether that’s someone who hasn’t done what you asked them to do, someone who did something that you didn’t ask them to do, or even someone who did something that you did ask them to do but got it wrong and made a complete hash of things!  The control freak in me often says “do it yourself, it’s easier and it will get done properly” (I don’t know a PM who isn’t a control freak) but (a) that means that you have staff whom you think are incompetent and if that’s the case, why did you employ them;  (b) why didn’t you train them properly in the first place? and (c) you can’t delegate – and if you can’t delegate you shouldn’t be in the hot seat!

So, is there an answer? I don’t think there is because people are people and we all make mistakes – even me. I know, it’s hard to believe isn’t it, but there you go, I’ve admitted I have flaws! For us managers, sometimes we just have to pick up the pieces, scoop the poop, and make it right.  Of course, some poop is bigger than other poop – it might be easy to quickly rectify a mislaid prescription for a patient – but it’s altogether another story if, for example, a referral was missed (and don’t even think about that missed referral being a ‘two week wait’).  Bigger poop equals bigger scoops – but it’s so time consuming isn’t it?!

In an ideal world, the person who made the poop would do the scoop, but we’re in Primary Care and life isn’t like that. How many times recently has the poop been made by someone who doesn’t even work in your building? Mr H…. you know I’m talking about you, right?) And yet, here we all are, picking up YOUR poop!

The team I work with know that I’ll support them, and help them in any way I can – and I’ll certainly help them scoop the poop if something goes awry. Occasionally, I get a bit miffed but my bark is generally worse than my bite (no puns intended). We can go over the poop, scoop it up, re-visit the poop at a Significant Event meeting, if the poop is indeed that significant… but every now and then, I just want them to get it right the first time round and not poop at all!

Yes, I know – deluded as usual!  Maybe I should try that medication afterall…

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