Today’s blog is by a patient, with permission and reproduced here in full. It’s the longest comment we’ve ever received and while it followed a normal request from a patient to his own GP near Ely, the vision takes flight.
—————————————
“This new system will make the most enormous improvement to NHS healthcare and waiting lists at both Health centres and A and E there has been for many years.
The many advantages are obvious and predictable. It will greatly enhance the chances of speaking directly to your GP as soon as possible IF the patient has a potentially serious, or possibly life-threatening condition and even more important will allow the GP more time to read a carefully thought out email of the condition the patient is worried about.
It will also allow the GP to filter out timewasters, or people expecting Antibiotics for a virus, with the expectation that it is all they need and completely missing the whole point of why and where there are prescribed and therefore further reducing the effectiveness of antibiotics and the increasing resistance of viruses to them.
As a result, the waiting times for an appointment will be more responsive to the apparent severity and urgency of the individual patient’s condition and allow the GP to carefully analyse and make informed decisions on priorities regarding urgency, or non-urgency of face to face appointments.
Expectations and confidence amongst young parents in their local health centre will gradually rise, rather than immediately adding to the long list of worried people turning up and waiting in line for hours at A and E always wanting immediate attention from hospital staff who neither know them, or are aware of particular people who worry, perhaps too much, about their children’s possible health problems.
Given the constant and continuing limitations and financial constraints on the NHS in general, and healthcare centres in particular, this will prove to be one of the most considerable improvements to the healthcare system there has ever been! Great idea, hope every other NHS medical centre follows your lead.
Kind regards
Andrew Tiley
9th October 2018”
——————————————–
This week marks seven years since I registered GP Access Ltd, aiming to make it easier for patients to get help from their own GP, and easier for GPs to provide that help. While we had the germ of a method from pioneering GPs including Chris Barlow and Simon Coupe, I knew that if we were to survive it would be through things not yet invented in 2011.
It hasn’t been easy but sometimes there’s a shaft of light, and Mr Tiley’s unsolicited comments encapsulate so well what we do that he deserves his own blog.
His practice, Staploe and Cathedral, launched on Monday and in five days has seen a complete transformation of their service. The wait to contact a named GP has dropped from weeks to minutes, and despite unplanned GP leave they have coped with all demand on the day.
Well done and thank you.
Harry Longman
