Just a couple of weeks in to 2025 and we can all be forgiven to thinking it’s going to be another roller-coaster year spent firefighting on all fronts.

“Spend a dime and save a Buck”

I am not sure who first said that, but how true the saying is! The NHS is facing the possibility of the service breaking, as so many trusts have declared critical incidents, and they are failing to keep up with the increased demand.

The demand is based on a high rate of flu cases, Covid cases, norovirus, and RSV cases and hospital patients are waiting days in corridors to even get a bed.

One has to ask, if the fifty to sixty-five cohort of patients had been vaccinated for flu, would that have reduced the serious cases needing hospitalisation?  Bear in mind that NHS staff are also at risk of catching the same things going round, (yes, I know NHS staff are offered the vaccines, but not all take it up).

Then, we need to look at the scrapping of the winter fuel support money when it has been so cold for so long. This of course affects the elderly and vulnerable and will increase complications associated with elderly people and lead to raised hospital admissions.

We will not be able to measure what would have been saved in resources had the flu vaccine been offered to more people, or the winter fuel allowance had remained in place, but I would hazard a guess that the extra spending would have saved money overall.

Primary Care and the Winter Freeze

We have continued through the severe weather to remain open and be available for our patients.

What a boon it has been to have total triage; this has meant that far more people have been able to be seen on-line, resulting in more safety for patients that feared going out in the bad weather.  
Of course, some patients have needed to come in, and we have been there for them.

I cannot remember the weather having been this bad for many years and whilst we have had a few staff not being able to get into work, the majority have found their way in, and it shows the spirit of NHS workers.

To Grit or not to Grit

We have a large car park and every year we have the same conundrum when the weather is icy and snowy.
Do we grit the car park and paths or not? There are differing views from what I can see. If you do grit, does it still stop people from slipping, and if they slip can you say you took reasonable precautions? 
If you do not grit, are you at risk as you have left it in a possibly dangerous state?

We as a practice have taken the step to get a company to grit each night, during this very cold period. We have even gone as far as closing the car park to patients due to its dangerous state. That has not stopped patients driving over the cones as they feel entitled to park in the car park...

We have done the best we can, however we have had a couple of phone calls saying that someone had slipped in our car park and wanted us to know.

We have no proof of their slip, as help was not sought from the practice so these maybe trying to sue us. 
It will be interesting to see what happens; we are damned if we do and damned if we do not.

Stay warm and safe.