“It’s lovely not being shouted at 24/7”
Receptionist Karen’s first comment to me was both startling and predictable. Her Somerset practice launched their demand led system two weeks ago, and since then she has been able to help every patient. Three weeks ago she and her colleagues were turning away one in five patients (we measured it) but they have moved straight into the super league, with a median response time from the GPs of 26 minutes.
The GPs love it too, but I find they are more buttoned up and try to find at least one thing to grumble about. “I’ll be home early so will have to put the kids to bed,” said one.
That didn’t take too long did it, or seem so hard? It was four weeks of preparation, to abolish the old system and start the new.
So why aren’t we hearing about this from the commentariat? I get a stream of dismal blogs from Nuffield/King’s Fund/Health Foundation (why don’t they just merge, it would save all those personnel transfer costs?) wringing their hands about how hard it is to change anything.
Another one today on General Practice at Scale, is it working? Yawn. Fiddling with structures, the obsession of policy makers who should get out more and ask “WHAT WORKS?”. Instead we’re told,
“Motivations… centred on a desire to offer better access…
Most strikingly, what the survey revealed was just how long enacting change can take – at least two years to even begin to achieve what they’d set out to do.”
Useless. And no measure of performance is even offered. This is why Deming said that motivation is fine but worthless on its own. The question is “By what method?”
Method is central to our work and it’s so repeatable now that the outcome is binary: either the practice decides to change, and it all happens within a month, or it doesn’t, and nothing much happens at all, ever.
But method is not static, we are continually learning and having to adapt. Another Midlands practice told me yesterday they are learning lots from having a GP in reception, sometimes even taking calls from patients, and their performance is rocketing while demand is falling.
I’m not going to call it a trend yet, but if you are a demand led practice you’re probably enjoying the sunshine dividend today. Have a great weekend.
Harry Longman
PS Learning a lot from askmyGP users too, with over 1200 episodes and 130 patient feedbacks on the new system, 55 suggestions from staff, a terrific response. We’ve already put dozens into service and next week’s plans include one for low using practices (they will get an email notification of an online demand) and one very much anticipated by high users.
GPs have been emailing patients because it’s convenient – but it’s not secure and poorly controlled for IG and patient safety. From next week those on the Transform programme will be able to securely message patients in a two way conversation. It’s going to be another huge time saver. Will let you know how it goes.
