>Do you have any
>suggestions as to how "winter pressures" in general practice may be
>quantified (without additional data collection)? Might levels of
>prescribing of antibiotics, to be calculated regularly by the PPA on a
>district by district basis, give some sort of (albeit retrospective)
>measure?
Simple stuff like consultation rates, numbers of "extra" appointments etc
may give some indication - but it's all very difficult especially as Xmas
casts a shadow over patient behavior "better by Christmas etc...." The
majority of our RTIs were viral & most did NOT get antibiotics - though
30-40% did. So AB scripts will be a proxy but would underestimate the
epidemic (at least in our practice). Read Code analysis in paperless
practices (like ours) might yield better data - I might do it sometime!
>Measuring is one thing, but is there anything we can do about it? Are
>there factors locally, such as lack of community social services back
>up or inability to arrange short-term nursing home placement, which
>result in you admitting patients who you would otherwise look after
>yourself. Do you admit patients simply because workload pressures
>prohibit regular repeat visiting / follow-up of acutely ill patients?
I admit - because patients cannot manage at home - either for the next x hrs
until help can be arranged - or at all. As for regular FU visiting - we
abandoned that years ago - FU can frequently be done by phone "are you
getting better?" The biggest workload factor is that most patients reach for
the phone - for advice/appt or visit before reaching for the paracetamol >
patient education/expectation is a major problem!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Dr Alan Hassey, Fisher Medical Centre, Millfields, Skipton, BD23 1EU
+ Email: [log in to unmask], URL:http://www.midwife.demon.co.uk
+ GP Trainer Airedale VTS, GP Computer Adviser North Yorks HA
+ RCGP Health Informatics Group, Northern & Yorkshire LURG
++++++++++ PGP public key ID: 161BB451 +++++++++++++++++++
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