I’m sitting here in my shorts, tee shirt and sandals and it’s the middle of October. Yes, I’m in Leicestershire, for those thinking laterally, and I have a jumper on, but I felt it worth dressing up to make the point.
Unless you’ve already settled on Mars, you’ve noticed that it’s significantly warmer than in your youth and while a fine warm week in October is weather rather than climate, we know the trend is one way.
The IPCC warned this week that our fossil fuel burn must fall more rapidly than we thought. Policy must change, and behaviour must change.
We link our work with askmyGP directly to lower carbon use, because it saves travel to the GP surgery. It’s hard to measure the numbers with telephone consulting, but we have much better data now with some 10,000 patient requests via askmyGP each week. Roughly 9,000 are for the GP, of which 6,000 are resolved remotely. Say half would have involved a car journey of say 1 mile each way, that’s 6,000 road miles saved – and we have only just started.
I’m optimistic that if we do the right thing, a lower carbon future can be a better one all round, and I’m glad to say the patients agree.
“Fantastic service, much easier to speak to GP whilst sitting in the comfort of your own home. Many thanks” f 53
“So much better than getting in the car and visiting. Personal chat with my GP at a time convenient to us both.” f 65
“I think the new system is excellent. Saves time and must give the doctor more time to see patients who actually need proper medical attention. Saves me from having to bundle my 1 year old son on a bus and come up for nothing. Love the new system!”
And why should patients have all the fun? One of our practices has instituted a work-from-home-day for all the partners. They are as productive as ever if not more so, one telling me she saves a 50 minute car commute each way.
GPs keep telling me they are terribly stressed, and I’m sorry we don’t do counselling or mindfulness sessions. All we can offer is to change the system, but consulting in slippers is quite nice.
Anyway, if you haven’t yet seen it, listen mindfully for 25 minutes as
PS. When each request is completed, we invite the patient to leave feedback and about 5% do so. The real time chart shows about 3 to 1 say the new system is better v worse, but one wrote this yesterday which was moving:
“It’s more than better. This is revolutionary. No waiting to see a GP and the speed at which the service delivered is outstanding.
I’ve switched practices to Central….the doctors are way above my previous experiences with another practice” m 67.
Another patient yesterday wrote the longest comment we’ve ever seen, an essay. I’m going to publish it tomorrow, do look out.
*Featured image is one I took in a GP car park, the environmental consequence of “GP at scale”.
A climate of change
I’m sitting here in my shorts, tee shirt and sandals and it’s the middle of October. Yes, I’m in Leicestershire, for those thinking laterally, and I have a jumper on, but I felt it worth dressing up to make the point.
Unless you’ve already settled on Mars, you’ve noticed that it’s significantly warmer than in your youth and while a fine warm week in October is weather rather than climate, we know the trend is one way.
The IPCC warned this week that our fossil fuel burn must fall more rapidly than we thought. Policy must change, and behaviour must change.
We link our work with askmyGP directly to lower carbon use, because it saves travel to the GP surgery. It’s hard to measure the numbers with telephone consulting, but we have much better data now with some 10,000 patient requests via askmyGP each week. Roughly 9,000 are for the GP, of which 6,000 are resolved remotely. Say half would have involved a car journey of say 1 mile each way, that’s 6,000 road miles saved – and we have only just started.
I’m optimistic that if we do the right thing, a lower carbon future can be a better one all round, and I’m glad to say the patients agree.
“Fantastic service, much easier to speak to GP whilst sitting in the comfort of your own home. Many thanks” f 53
“So much better than getting in the car and visiting. Personal chat with my GP at a time convenient to us both.” f 65
“I think the new system is excellent. Saves time and must give the doctor more time to see patients who actually need proper medical attention. Saves me from having to bundle my 1 year old son on a bus and come up for nothing. Love the new system!”
And why should patients have all the fun? One of our practices has instituted a work-from-home-day for all the partners. They are as productive as ever if not more so, one telling me she saves a 50 minute car commute each way.
GPs keep telling me they are terribly stressed, and I’m sorry we don’t do counselling or mindfulness sessions. All we can offer is to change the system, but consulting in slippers is quite nice.
Anyway, if you haven’t yet seen it, listen mindfully for 25 minutes as
Three GPs Spill The Beans
Warm wishes,
Harry Longman
PS. When each request is completed, we invite the patient to leave feedback and about 5% do so. The real time chart shows about 3 to 1 say the new system is better v worse, but one wrote this yesterday which was moving:
“It’s more than better. This is revolutionary. No waiting to see a GP and the speed at which the service delivered is outstanding.
I’ve switched practices to Central….the doctors are way above my previous experiences with another practice” m 67.
Another patient yesterday wrote the longest comment we’ve ever seen, an essay. I’m going to publish it tomorrow, do look out.
*Featured image is one I took in a GP car park, the environmental consequence of “GP at scale”.
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