It was a tweet from a regular GP partner (yes, they’re all special).
It was last Sunday lunchtime. Why then? For fun. For sharing. For sheer joy and pride in work. For having something to say.
It had the image of a runchart, that simple device which is still the best way to show what happens to some characteristic over time, this one monthly from Feb 17 to Feb 19.
Now what’s remarkable about the characteristic is that it’s “Average days waiting to see GP”. That may seem obvious enough to a patient (oh yes, we’re all patients) but this was from a GP.
If you’ve noticed in all the medical press, Pulse, GP Online, BMJ, NHS England and so on they all harp endlessly about the pressures of workload, stress, burnout, early retirement of GPs and so on, but nairy a word about patients.
Now here’s a GP doing data about what matters to patients. How long to get help.
I can almost feel that defence welling up inside you “It’s not the only thing that matters to patients!”. Yes, we know it’s not the only thing, what also matters is the professional care they receive, and for many relational continuity with a named GP. But there’s no point in praising the wonderful professional care which patients can’t actually get.
Everyone knows the single biggest theme in the general media concerning GPs is the time waiting to get help, and in our own surveys of practice staff, the dominant theme is the difficulty in giving patients the help they need soon. Equally, the dominant theme by far in our patient feedback is gratitude for the speed of response.
Yet nobody is measuring the waiting time, what matters most to patients. Where are you NHS England, Scotland, Wales and NI?
We must turn to the story in the data. From Feb 17 to May 19 it starts with a range between 2 and 5 days wait, variable in such a way that stats geeks call “out of statistical control”. Others would say it’s all over the place.
Then it changes completely to a new mean of 1.5 days with random variation of +/- 0.3 days. This is in statistical control.
If you aren’t curious yet, there’s more. Discussion follows where the author Dr Dave Triska of Witley & Milford Surgery is asked what extra resources he needed to achieve this. “Mmmm we didn’t recruit anyone, in face we lost 6 sessions as we changed over due to retirement”
There’s no shortage of GPs here – they’ve saved a whole one.
What about personal care, stress? “It’s a pleasure most days to give people what they need – rarely overrun now even with 30mins with people dotted through the day”
So some patients are getting half an hour. And by the way, we know they achieve 91% continuity, choice of named GP.
People, this is history in the making, I don’t know how it will be looked on in the future but I’m calling it:
The Tweety of Witley & Milford
It was a tweet from a regular GP partner (yes, they’re all special).
It was last Sunday lunchtime. Why then? For fun. For sharing. For sheer joy and pride in work. For having something to say.
It had the image of a runchart, that simple device which is still the best way to show what happens to some characteristic over time, this one monthly from Feb 17 to Feb 19.
Now what’s remarkable about the characteristic is that it’s “Average days waiting to see GP”. That may seem obvious enough to a patient (oh yes, we’re all patients) but this was from a GP.
If you’ve noticed in all the medical press, Pulse, GP Online, BMJ, NHS England and so on they all harp endlessly about the pressures of workload, stress, burnout, early retirement of GPs and so on, but nairy a word about patients.
Now here’s a GP doing data about what matters to patients. How long to get help.
I can almost feel that defence welling up inside you “It’s not the only thing that matters to patients!”. Yes, we know it’s not the only thing, what also matters is the professional care they receive, and for many relational continuity with a named GP. But there’s no point in praising the wonderful professional care which patients can’t actually get.
Everyone knows the single biggest theme in the general media concerning GPs is the time waiting to get help, and in our own surveys of practice staff, the dominant theme is the difficulty in giving patients the help they need soon. Equally, the dominant theme by far in our patient feedback is gratitude for the speed of response.
Yet nobody is measuring the waiting time, what matters most to patients. Where are you NHS England, Scotland, Wales and NI?
We must turn to the story in the data. From Feb 17 to May 19 it starts with a range between 2 and 5 days wait, variable in such a way that stats geeks call “out of statistical control”. Others would say it’s all over the place.
Then it changes completely to a new mean of 1.5 days with random variation of +/- 0.3 days. This is in statistical control.
If you aren’t curious yet, there’s more. Discussion follows where the author Dr Dave Triska of Witley & Milford Surgery is asked what extra resources he needed to achieve this. “Mmmm we didn’t recruit anyone, in face we lost 6 sessions as we changed over due to retirement”
There’s no shortage of GPs here – they’ve saved a whole one.
What about personal care, stress? “It’s a pleasure most days to give people what they need – rarely overrun now even with 30mins with people dotted through the day”
So some patients are getting half an hour. And by the way, we know they achieve 91% continuity, choice of named GP.
People, this is history in the making, I don’t know how it will be looked on in the future but I’m calling it:
The Tweety of Witley & Milford 2019
Be the witnesses.
Harry Longman
This page is not for patients, who must find their own practice website to use askmyGP.
What you can read next
Ben Gowland talks to Hugh Reeve
The Flaw of Averages
Making it easier for patients (shock!)