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Published on: 21/06/2021 09:25 AMReported by: roving-eye
GP practices in Sefton are open and continue to provide services as they have done throughout the pandemic. This means that for patients, your surgery is still providing healthcare services, be it remotely using telephone or video technology, or face to face if safe to do so and deemed necessary by your GP.
One Sefton patient is very thankful that her GP practice was so helpful as she was referred to the right service for her at the right time.
Mrs Andrea De Cort, a Sefton resident, talks about her experience with her practice during lockdown: “Myself and my husband Ron have been helped by our GP practice several times during lockdown and I have to say that they have been excellent on each occasion.
“I found two lumps on my right breast in May 2020 and went through the econsult system to let my doctor know about it, I drew sketches of where they were and had a phone call with the receptionist that day who actively listened to everything I had to say. They referred me straight away to the Royal Liverpool Hospital and were brilliant at updating me on my care. What was reassuring was that this was all dealt with within a few days.
“It’s really crucial that people understand that their GP practice is still open for business. You might need to deal with them slightly differently to how you have done in the past, but it makes no difference to the standard of treatment you will get.”
In Sefton, the number of patients GP practices are seeing, either face to face, over the phone or via a video link, is increasing month on month as surgeries concentrate solely on the healthcare needs of residents having completed their part in vaccinating the most vulnerable people of Sefton in the top nine priority groups during the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Over the last six months GP practices have organised over 666,833 appointments for Sefton residents outside of any vaccination appointments in that time. This is an increase of 20.7% from the previous six months, showing the rising demand GPs are facing.
The threat of infection from COVID-19 still exists and rates in Sefton continue to rise. Patients are being asked to continue to follow guidance in place and take the necessary precautions such as wearing face coverings and practicing good hygiene. Patients are also being asked to be kind to GP practice staff at this busy time and respect the necessary infection control measures that are in place to ensure surgeries stay functional and open.
GP practice buildings are public buildings and as such must be kept COVID-secure. Your GP practice will already have a process in place for managing entry into the premises to help minimise the risk of anybody spreading the virus. Please continue to follow this.
New ways of providing GP services have been introduced and are still in place in order to maintain access to your GP practice team while protecting you, others and staff. Triage (making an assessment of your condition and prioritising care accordingly) is an important part of how GP practices work. This has always been in place but has been vitally important during the pandemic.
Dr Pete Chamberlain, local GP and chair at NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “We are open and have been providing GP services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We have learnt during the pandemic, that we can conduct consultations very well with the vast majority of patients using digital technology. With COVID-19 levels rising we are supporting practices to continue with this approach.
“The majority of common conditions can be assessed and diagnosed by your GP by telephone or video consultation. However, as has been the case throughout the pandemic, if your GP feels that a face to face appointment is required and it is safe to do so, this should be arranged for you. We also continue to provide an Out of Hours GP service at evenings and weekends for those who need it.”
Dr Rob Caudwell, local GP and chair of NHS Southport and Formby CCG, said: “Around 25% of people with COVID symptoms are getting a negative flow test result which is why it’s important to go with a PCR test if you do have symptoms, especially as we are seeing levels rising again in Sefton and you can book this on the Gov.uk website.
“Accessing your GP in the correct way for your specific medical need will help to protect you, your family and loved ones - and GP practice staff from the potential risk of the virus.
“We have been busy throughout the pandemic continuing to provide support to patients as well as being an important part of the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Patients are being reminded that staff are here to help and should be treated with kindness and respect.”
All you can hear in Sefton is the sound of the Great and the Good clapping themselves on the back for how great a job they are doing (and we are paying them to do). Which is strange, because on the ground residents report things getting worse, not better.
Lets dissect this Press Release more carefully:
a) Chamberlain, Caudwell and the rest of the mob at NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) have managed to find one female patient who is satisfied with the response she received during the pandemic. Unfortunately I alone know of about 20 people who had the opposite experience, so its odds-on that she is in the minority.
b) The CCG breezily suggest that getting to see your doctor in some form or anothe has been a doddle - "We have been busy throughout the pandemic continuing to provide support to patients" - yet evidence on the ground suggests the reverse. One woman I know gave up trying to phone the Formby Clinic, went to post a letter there instead - to discover they don't even have a letterbox.
c) “The majority of common conditions can be assessed and diagnosed by your GP by telephone or video consultation." - Chamberlain and Caudwell need to read the newspapers a little more. There have been multiple reports of patients discovering - too late - that they have a fatal illness after having been diagnosed with something minor instead when they have had a 'remote consultation"
Also, given that most people over 70 don't have access to 'digital technology', the only examination they will have had will have been 'invisible' and by telephone. Frankly some doctors give poor enough service face-to-face, heaven knows the quality of service over the phone.
d) "Over the last six months GP practices have organised over 666,833 appointments for Sefton residents outside of any vaccination appointments in that time. This is an increase of 20.7% from the previous six months, showing the rising demand GPs are facing" - the problem is, the previous six months was... also in the pandemic, so fairly meaningless. E.g. if a surgery managed 1000 appointments in the first six months, then 2000 in the latest period, that would be a 100% increase. But if outside of the pandemic they usually did 5000 appointments, it would show that they were delivering just 20% of their normal service.
So, Chamberlaind and Caudwell should be indicating what the non-pandemic appointment figures were. Which they seem to be avoiding.
So, what is the solution? Well, apart from newspapers publishing PR releases like they are gospel - acceptable for this site given lack of resources, unacceptable by relatively wealthy organs such as the dire Liverpool Echo - more questions need to be asked of the well paid CCG.
For one, although it is understandable why having hordes of patients mixing in a surgery during a pandemic is not a great idea, that would not have stopped doctors, nurses, midwives etc. from donning high-grade PPE and actually getting off their rears and travelling around the borough visiting residents in their homes.
Did this happen? If so, I haven't heard.
There's a bigger question to answer. Somewhere in the last 10-15 years, the quality of GP services seemed to have generally gone downhill - no doubt with some honourable exceptions. I remember that the odious Labour MP Milburn managed to give GPs a huge pay increase (he eventually went on to work for a large medical company, from memory) and very soon after that some GPs at least decided to reduce their hours (often to look after their kids, fair enough) as they could now afford to. So, what we need to see are the stats for average number of hours in the surgery for the past 20 years.
Ditto, when Chamberlain and Caudwell ramble on about 'consultations', do they mean genuine substantive consultations with an actual GP - as in 'doctor, I have a large lump on my breast, should I be worried about it?' or simply walking into a room to meet with a non-doctor for 15 minutes, filling in a form to say how much booze and fags we consume over the year?
There are plenty of US firms waiting in the wings to snap up NHS GP practices - its happening down south - and the more the CCG just blow their own trumpet rather than really improve services, the more local residents may end up accepting our own practices being taken over, in the hope that things improve.
I very much doubt that hospital A&E doctors are particularly impressed with the "service" provided by GPs during the pandemic!
Last summer I had a telephone consultation with my GP as I had been experiencing persistant 24-hour abdominal discomfort for 3 days. It wasn't an excruciating pain, but rather an uncomfortable sensation. Having refused to offer me a face-to-face appointment, and without asking any relevant diagnostic questions, he told me to attend the A&E Dept at Southport Hospital.
A&E was super-busy when I arrived, and I waited for over 4 hours before being seen by a doctor. She apologised for the long delay, and explained that the department was particularly busy because local GPs were directing a huge number of patients to the hospital, rather than seeing them within their own surgeries. So even patients with the most minor health niggles were being instructed to go to A&E; and the hospital staff really weren't pleased about the increased workload during such a critical period.
Accident & Emergency - and yet those of us in the waiting room clearly had not been involved in an accident; nor were we enduring any sort of medical emergency. (I was swiftly diagnosed with grumbling gall stones and advised to go home and take paracetamol.) So while the population at large had their routine hospital appointments cancelled, to enable staff to concentrate their efforts on the influx of covid patients, GPs were flooding the hospital with their patients - the majority of which were hardly ill!
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