In General Practice (and other parts of the Health Service) there is a natural circle of Need and Capacity. When there is unmet need it shows up as Demand and this is what usually drives increases in Capacity. However, there is a delay while capacity meets the need and politically it may be tempting to … Read more
Coronavirus has probably done General Practice a favour. Of course it has been hard and scary being on the front line when the entire country is in free fall trying to cope with something which reaches to the core of our society. But rarely has there been a disease which has forced the NHS to … Read more
There is no doubt that General Practice has changed remarkably since the start of March Use of telephone and video consultations have become the norm. All calls are triaged. Practices are routinely open on Bank Holidays. There has been a dramatic reduction in use of locums. Local support groups have been mobilised. But these have … Read more
Primary Care is what we do – it is our core function and doing other things will not let us off the hook if we fail to provide Primary Care to our patients.Primary Care is that care which can be provided by a Doctor (along with their support team) to their own patients. This stops … Read more
It is trendy to talk about moving away from “old fashioned” GP receptionists towards call centres or even computerised phone systems and apps. Economies of scale and the efficiencies of not having staff idle between calls seem to support this industrialisation of Primary Care. 24-hour call centres promise better access and allow staff to be … Read more