>Emergency Services Action Team (ESAT)
>
.
>
>Informally, e.g. via GP-UK, there seems to have been a high incidence
>of "laryngo-tracheo bronchitis" over Christmas. There has been a high
>incidence of bronchiolitis locally but no rise in severe flu-like
>illness requiring admission. Is this your impression?
Certainly is. Best Winter for a while IMHO (So Far!)
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?
How about number of GP's who put in their resignation in March?
Seriously though:
How about getting BT or Cable and wireless to provide logs of total calls
into practices. The telephone is the way the majority of patients or rellys
contact us either to insist on visits or urgent appointments. The whole
process would be invisible to the practice, involve no work for the practice
and would be simle counting of anonymised data. Very little scope for fraud
as the log would detect patterns of repeated calling from the same number
etc. I know that it is within the capabilities of the telecommunications
firms to do this.
>Measuring is one thing, but is there anything we can do about it?
Yes get tough. Learn to say NO without the attendant guilt
> 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.
Is ten to seven, healthcall take over in ten minutes. Looking forward to a
takeaway chinky, bottle of wine, cuddle with the kids and maybe the wife.
Get a call for a "grey area case". You visit. Might get by with extra
district nurse support, or long chat with rellys to persuade them to
increase their surveillance, or beurocratic nightmare of finding a social
worker and getting emergency part 3 or some such OR Freindly chat with SHO
and home by seven. Sounds Cynical, callous... not really just following the
least line of resistance after a busy day.
> Do you admit patients simply because workload pressures
>prohibit regular repeat visiting / follow-up of acutely ill patients?
Regular repeat visiting has no place in the way I practice my general
practice. I make no apology about this. It is the only way I will see my 40
year pension.
Follow up of acutely ill patients can be dne by telephone and it can work 2
ways.
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