The dust has now settled on the general election and whatever our political views are, we now have a new administration in charge. Naturally, it will take time and patience to see any material change in many things, but the soundbites coming out from the new government are encouraging.

They are blaming the last government for the state of the NHS after 14 years in power, but it is successive governments going back decades that have failed to address the long-term issues, of more demand and social care.

So, what can we expect, and will it start putting things right? The new health secretary has recognised many issues, and it is to be hoped that solutions can be found to repair the state of the NHS.

An early indicator was his comment that he realises that Primary Care doesn’t get a fair share of the NHS funding pot, bearing in mind we do most of the work. He is also meeting with the junior doctors to negotiate on their long-running dispute and that will be an early indication of the seriousness of his words.

There are also sounds that some NHS workers will get an inflation-busting pay increase in the region of 5%, but whether that will be for Primary Care workers we will need to wait and see.

Darzi Review in 6 Weeks

They have also appointed Lord Darzi to hold a quick the “state of the NHS” investigation to report in 6 weeks, into what is needed and what should be done. We, however, do know from past work by Lord Darzi that he favours work being taken out of practices, such as echo / ultrasound, and these being offered in polyclinics, or one-stop clinics.

This would seriously affect the finances in general practice, as many surgeries offer this extra work to boost income. What they don’t realise is that patients prefer getting treatment in their local surgery rather than a big hospital or centre.

Again, why move things and set up new centres at great expense when a lot of the infrastructure is already in place?

Promises of more appointments across the NHS is encouraging, provided that there are resources to support the plan.

With Primary Care being at full capacity and so many GPs not being able to find work, surely it must be cost-effective to use the investment into all the training they have had made, to fund more in primary care practices and that will be effective? A certain element of this would be self-financing, as it would take pressures off secondary care.

Computer Says No...

Most of us have been affected by the global IT event on 19th July 2024 and for once we cannot blame the NHS clinical system. But it does highlight how dependent we have become on technology systems, and the risks we all face.

Consulting with patients without the records is a nightmare, as we are all wary of making wrong decisions. I can understand the nerves of clinicians, but is doing nothing also an option?

Some practices chose to close, and others tried to soldier on; both decisions were difficult to make. Unless you work in the NHS you will not know the implications of taking either option. So, naturally there has been both criticism and plaudits for the action taken. As I write it looks as though things are back on, so fingers crossed.

COVID Pressures Return

There is limited general news on COVID-19, for obvious reasons, however, we are being warned of a current spike in positive tests and hospitalisation.

Our practice has been badly affected over the last few weeks with staff being ill and testing positive. 
Even with our system of keeping staff off for 5 days, or having two negative tests, the virus has gone through each department, and it has put pressure on the surgery. I got it and had a week off, but still managed some work from home, and it was particularly nasty flu-like symptoms (I returned on day 6 as with so many other staff off, we needed the cover).