Bugger all happened when I turned 40, and still hasn’t.
No contact from my GP what so ever.
I’ve always said that I could start another business just offering GP practices a free financial and patient outcomes ‘health check’ and only charge a fee based on finding increased revenue opportunities.
2 hours with the partners and practice manager and a cheque on the way out 80% of the time.
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I know they run as independent businesses, but their contracts with the NHS must be shit if the end result is a post code lottery, especially if the funding is in place for additional services.
If the fix requires the business you suggest then something just isn’t working.
The basis of the current model is a bit like expecting newsagents will offer the same selection of magazines and confectionery whichever one you go to up and down the country.
GP contracts traditionally have been far from shit. It’s easy to make more than enough money without taking up all available recurrent and non recurrent funding. That’s partly what drives the variation, on top of very poor central and local contracting with practices.
However what’s happening now is that the base contract isn’t buying each of the partners a new car or several luxury holidays a year, and so each practice will be looking for other ways to top up their income, again with little consistency - hence variation in services etc.
I could write the book on this, not just the problems but the answer to now, and the solution required from the DoH. But of course the audience it’s aimed at would be too busy to read, digest and act upon it. Hence the business suggested would have plenty of scope.
Just seen this Nick. All the very best.
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All the best Nick.
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Good luck Nick
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It is, but he isn’t.
One of the problems with the PSA test is that there is a lot of ‘noise’ in PSA levels. They vary from individual to individual and they also vary with time for each man, depending on all sorts of other issues/recent history. If you want to get the ‘cleanest’ possible result then you should have the test done after a few days of not doing anything else which might have elevated the PSA level in your blood.
For the statistical record, my GPs have never invited me for a general check-up. I’m treated for my diabetes by a specialist clinic at the Churchill in Oxford. As part of their programme they do basic checks (weight, blood pressure and quite a comprehensive set of blood tests) every 8 months or so and maybe the GP thinks this covers the issue. But the diabetes people don’t cover PSA (unsurprisingly). I asked my GP to do PSA for me perhaps 6-8 years ago and they didn’t resist that. I should probably ask them for another one.
Unsurprisingly (again) that’s regularly been a critical issue here in Didcot, house-building hotspot for the Thames valley. The local GPs have periodically closed their lists until the screams from the new arrivals that they can’t register with anyone force them open again. They’ve struggled for one reason and another (premises space, national shortage of GPs etc) to recruit more staff.
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GP contracts appear to be good for GPSs, not for us. If they were good for us they would surely be based on outcomes and targets, removing the post code lottery.
GP’s ? Outcomes and meaningful targets ? I think they are mutually exclusive. They seem happy to spend ever more on external Consultants (?) to help them milk the obviously broken system than to, whisper it, improve outcomes ? What, for patients ? 
They really don’t. GPs don’t have the scale or see the value. They typically think they know everything there is to know about general practice and about running a small business.
Jan’s knee swelled up this week so this morning rang the doctor. Receptionist said a doctor would call back in an hour. She got the call in 50 min from our new trainee doctor who asked lots of questions and asked if she could pop in.
20 min later in the surgery saw the trainee who checked her over, got a second opinion from the main doctor and an appointment booked for a x- ray.
The only complaint I have is that she has been told not to kneel down, so that’s me doing all the fucking weeding.
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Definitely thought you were going somewhere else with that…
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Hmmm
On a serious note sorry to hear she’s not well and glad she’s been seen quickly. Hope it gets better soon too.
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Just seen this Nick. Welcome to the club and I am sorry to see your membership has been approved and confirmed. I hope that it proves to be a brief and extremely temporary stay on the sick list. Hopefully, the anticipation of cure will be worse than the cure itself.
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Thanks Olan.
Best wishes Nick.
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Just seen spotted this Nick, I think the last time I remember seeing you was at Edds a few years ago? Anyway, shocked to hear this, and I wish you all the best.
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Sam’s felt crappy since yesterday - which initially she put down to losing her little mog - and a great deal of sleep along with it - but we just did a COVID test and she’s +ve…
Now I too have a sore throat, chills, aches…
What a fucking week…
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