Another day, more NHS meddling....
JanieB
Posts: 3,425 Forum Member
✭✭✭
DM online this morning carrying the article about changes to GP services as from October in that we will be able to register anywhere we like GP wise, and not necessarily within the catchment area of our home address.
Whilst this might be a good idea in some respects (the pain of having to change a familiar GP one has been with for years just to move house a couple of miles away and have to register with a new one), I can see a few reasons why it might turn out to be a bit of a disaster.
Obviously people are not going to be daft enough to live in London and register with a GP in Newcastle, but there seems to be a failure to acknowledge the following. What is Jeremy Hunt going to do about the chronic shortage of practice nurses (of which I am one) who do the bulk of the practical work within general practice (yes Jez it is not just the docs that see the patients). Also how will the staff have enough hours in the day and appointment times to cope with an influx of patients in to more popular practices and then what will happen to the GP and staff working in the less popular ones who might see their patients (and therefore their incomes) drop dramatically and possibly lead to staff redundancies.
I am all for doctors driving up their standards and believe me I have worked in and been a patient of some dreadful GP practices but it will be interesting to see what develops.
Whilst this might be a good idea in some respects (the pain of having to change a familiar GP one has been with for years just to move house a couple of miles away and have to register with a new one), I can see a few reasons why it might turn out to be a bit of a disaster.
Obviously people are not going to be daft enough to live in London and register with a GP in Newcastle, but there seems to be a failure to acknowledge the following. What is Jeremy Hunt going to do about the chronic shortage of practice nurses (of which I am one) who do the bulk of the practical work within general practice (yes Jez it is not just the docs that see the patients). Also how will the staff have enough hours in the day and appointment times to cope with an influx of patients in to more popular practices and then what will happen to the GP and staff working in the less popular ones who might see their patients (and therefore their incomes) drop dramatically and possibly lead to staff redundancies.
I am all for doctors driving up their standards and believe me I have worked in and been a patient of some dreadful GP practices but it will be interesting to see what develops.
0
Comments
This 'change' isn't entirely new either, it is just being made official. When I moved in with my flatmate, he happened to have remained with his family doctors, despite having moved outside their catchment area. They were happy to take me on too as my flatmate status made me 'family' in their eyes. It's a bit further to get to, but it's a marvellous practice, so very much worth it.
On the matter of health, patients and their peace of mind must come first, I'm afraid. Health is the one area of my life I would always, always choose over employment. But as I said, jobs in total would not need to be lost, they would just move with the patients.
I agree of course, health comes first and I would hope that this change now that they have a date in mind will make some of the poorer practices buck up their ideas a bit!
Be better for routine treatment but if you need a home visit from a doctor or nurse it means they are looking at a 2 hour round trip.
As always with this government - **** packet idea, no thought given to what doing it means.
the chances of even getting a home visit from a gp these days are slim, unless you're elderly and out of hours service isn't usually involving your gp anyway.
I think it's a good idea. People can vote with their feet and look for the best practice, rather than the nearest.
Except the elderly can't really register with their feet, since my 86 year old nana can barely move from room to room, never mind from home to a good GP pactice miles away and she could hardly afford regular taxi costs. The elderly may need a different system to the young and healthy.
That's the way I see it and I witness it every day
You can already register out of your Drs catchment area but he only has to do home visits within the catchment area. Something patients need to bear in mind if they move and want to stay with their old Drs.
So what if you are medium term ill and require regular visits to the surgery?
As a district nurse we usually work within a geographical area. To do otherwise would be to spend most our time driving rather than visiting patients which as you agree is not the best use of our time.
Is someone has a GP nearer their work as opposed to home and they would require a district nurse (ie post operative) visit at home - the referral would be (hopefully) passed onto the correct district nursing team in the patients home area.
In practice this would mean a referral being passed through differing district nursing teams in different areas and different trusts. This involves greater administration and time and slows down the referral process. In practical terms this means the patient may not get a visit when he/she needs it.
When it comes to people rather than goods - things can always get a little bit complicated;)
We generally see patients even if they are out of our geographical area (within reason of course) but of course this would not be practical if they were registered in London and lived in Reading for example. It raises doubts about continuity and communication. I think the more likely scenario will be that patients will try and register at the more popular surgeries in their home towns but I imagine that the surgeries would have a cap on numbers
Its interesting to hear how other district nursing teams work. I work within an inner city area with many adjoining district nurse teams. It is therefore much easier to remain within a geographical area.
Having said that a friend of mine works in a town in the south west of England and there is only 3 district nursing teams in the whole of the town!! In the city where I work there is treble that number. Different places, different population numbers. Plus lots of deprivation in the inner city.
As soon as I heard of these plans a while back I pondered the problems of a lack of communication and administration difficulties this could cause.
Working in the NHS we get used to having to deal with the government's interference.:mad: