Practice Workload

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It’s been a while since we have updated our patients with what’s been happening at the Surgery. The last few weeks have been incredibly hard. The relentless negative press from the media about GP Surgeries being shut, and that no one is seeing patients face-to-face, has taken its toll on our team. No one comes to work to disappoint patients – we always try our best. We cannot comment on what other surgeries are doing, but we have never been busier. We are not sitting around “twiddling our thumbs” as has been suggested by the press. The reality is that we have our heads in our hands, struggling daily to meet our patient demand.

Many of us have also been supporting local COVID vaccination hubs on top of our daily workload.

We do not share this statement to stop patients contacting the surgery when they need us. That is what we are here for.  However, we want to give you a flavour  of what’s happening daily, so we can manage our patient’s expectations.

We are not alone. From 2011 to 2021 there are 3000 fewer GP’s, and 3,000,000 more patients. It has taken the strain of the pandemic to finally push GP surgery’s capacity over the edge.  All over England GP’s are resigning. They are working at unsafe workload levels, and this is dangerous and unsustainable.

Our Reception is working under tremendous strain, and we ask that our patients please treat them politely. The GP Partners will not tolerate abuse of our Reception staff, or any staff. Please remember that the appointment system we are using currently still has to meet the Guidance and Standard
Operating Procedures, General Practice in the context of coronavirus (COVID-19)
.

This guidance from NHS England still indicates a “total triage” model, with face to face appointments with a GP only offered once a clinician has assessed the patient remotely. Therefore – the Reception team cannot book a face-to-face appointment with a GP for a patient. We know this is frustrating for our patients, but we must follow the guidance from NHSE. We need to carefully monitor the amount of patients on our premises at any given time to comply with infection control requirements.   Most of the Nursing Team’s appointments continue to be face-to-face

Abuse of GP Surgery staff has now reached such a level, that The Institute of General Practice Management has released this video  https://youtu.be/hAM3fSDq9kA

We are OPEN, but still working differently, please do not delay in contacting us if you have a health concern.