On 3^rd April, my practice wrote a letter to all our patients to tell them about the pressures general practice is under and what this means for them in terms of their care.

I was pretty nervous about sending it out, as we know how things can be portrayed and how some people seem to have a vendetta against GP surgeries no matter what we do.

The letter, which came from the IGPM template, was picked up by the local media. It turns out a patient is related to a BBC reporter who got wind of it and sent someone down to the health centre to investigate the story. Poor muggins here was asked to comment, and I was very happy to say nothing until I realised the reporter’s headline was going to state that we were closing. Which was obviously not true! So, I spoke to him on camera, for the local news, to clarify the situation and explain how all surgeries are struggling to meet demand with the financial envelope we’ve been given. How the increase to the National Living Wage has impacted our budgets. How the sharp hike in energy prices and the impact of inflation on our purchasing are all costs that the surgery partners have to absorb.

I also voiced our concerns about the potential domino effect of practice closures. When one practice closes, the patients have to go to another. But if that practice is already struggling, has no extra space to see these patients or no extra staff, that might cause that practice to close too, and so on and so forth.

I was disappointed to see the article headline still stated that we were at risk of closure, when that was not the message I wanted to portray. However, what it prompted was an outpouring of support from our patients who genuinely were worried about losing their surgery.

And the emails we’ve received… well, consider my cockles thoroughly warmed!

A few patients have told us that they’ve written to the local MP already about this risk. One lady offered to come and volunteer sometime, to cover reception for free, if we were short-staffed. I’ve had numerous requests from people to join our PPG, and a lot of them end their emails with, “How can I help?”

It was definitely scary to stick our neck out like we did, but the response has been so heartwarming and positive. And our instincts were right – people really don’t want to lose their GP surgery. They’re very concerned about ending up with a system like dentistry (especially prevalent in my neck of the woods where people queued round the block for three days to get on a newly opened NHS dental practice’s books!).

I’ve heard other practices say they’re worried about looking like there’s a problem and scaring patients away. But there is a problem! And if we keep masking it, then our patients won’t feel the need to fight for us. And if I’ve learned anything from this, it’s that they’re willing to fight.

The most common response I’ve had from patients is, “Thank you for being so honest with us. It must have taken courage to write this letter and we really appreciate it.” So, let’s be brave.