My email to Stephen Dorrell, Chairman of Health Select Committee, on GP practice boundaries
“If your committee is unable to scrutinise this policy thoroughly, then who should?” George Farrelly shares an email to Stephen Dorrell MP about the Government’s proposal to abolish GP practice boundaries.
My second email to Jeremy Hunt on the fraudulent GP practice boundary policy
“There is of course another very important question here that I feel, as a professional and as a citizen, needs to be addressed. What is wrong with the system that we have come to this?” George Farrelly challenges the move towards abolishing GP practice boundaries.
Department of Health response to my email to Jeremy Hunt: the smell of rotting fish
“Yesterday I received the following email from the Department of Health. It alleges to be a reply to my email of 8/9/13 to Jeremy Hunt (see previous post). It does not address any of the concerns I raised in that email.” George Farrelly shares the response that he has received to his recent email to Jeremy Hunt MP.
My warning to Jeremy Hunt on policy to abolish GP boundaries: is it fraudulent?
“This patient ‘choice’ appears on the surface to be a welcome development. But as someone who has worked as a GP for over 25 years, it simply does not work…” George Farrelly explains his concerns with abolishing GP practice boundaries - and suggests what may really be behind this reform.
Competition, choice and quality in general practice
“The formulation of the patient as a ‘rational chooser’ underpins contemporary political policy, but is contradicted by studies about the experience of illness, the nature of suffering, the practice of care and the wishes of patients.” Jonathon Tomlinson explains why ‘patient choice’ fails to understand what patients really want.
Are GPs too lazy?
Two evenings ago, when I arrived home at 9pm for supper, my daughter, with a smile on her face, pointed me to the front cover of the current edition of The Week which asks ‘Are GPs too lazy?’ She and her brother were always clear that they were not going to study medicine because they thought their parents, both GPs, worked […]
Why are more people going to A&E?
That seems to be the question which is currently challenging health politicians and the media. Of course it is not a new question for those working in healthcare, since it is perfectly possible to track each and every attendance and episode of care that takes place. Even before I stopped being a commissioner at the […]
You don’t appreciate what you’ve got until it’s gone
From July 2012-February 2013, I was a CAMHS service user. I saw the consultant psychiatrist 4 times, an assistant psychologist 5 times and the CPN a few times a month. During this time I would also see my GP at her request, sometimes every week or sometimes every 2 weeks. Never more than 2 weeks […]
The true history of GP Out of Hours services
The early days of the NHS Before 1948 general practice was a cottage industry. Most GPs worked independently usually from a consulting room in their own house. There were few if any staff with the duties of answering the phone usually falling to the GP’s wife (most doctors were at that time male) or in […]
Frontline Friday round-up 10th May 2013: picking holes in Government policy
Here’s our round-up of frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 6th May 2013. This week the frontline blogosphere has been picking holes in Government policy and wondering whether Ministers are reckless or are pushing a hidden agenda, starting with health.
Warning to Health Select Committee on a policy damaging to general practice, from a whistleblower
“…in reality [it] will simply not work and will cause general practice to malfunction; in some cases it will be unsafe.” George Farrelly explains his concerns about the Government’s plan to abolish GP practice boundaries.
Loneliness
“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for and deserted by everybody” Mother Theresa I am always early for my doctors appointment. I cannot imagine how anyone could be late for a doctors appointment, even though I know that lots of doctors, including mine, often […]
Frontline Friday round-up 26th April 2013: Under pressure
Here’s our round-up of frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 22nd April 2013. This week: the frontline under pressure.
When amendments amount to nothing
“The coalition may have changed the wording but the original intention remains. Local commissioners will in effect be forced to put services out to competitive tender in order to prevent legal challenges from companies wishing to muscle in on NHS contracts.” Dr David Wrigley launches a renewed campaign against the NHS being ‘sold off to the highest bidder.’
Whisper it: UK cancer care is better than we think
The prevailing narrative surrounding cancer care in the UK is one of self-depreciation. Patients are assumed to be reticent about seeing their GP when they develop symptoms, either due to the stereotypical British stiff upper lip, or because the Great British Public is wallowing in such ignorance that it is in dire need of yet another […]
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, they are a-changing
“A re-focusing onto its core client base, a disconnection from social services leading to an often-dysfunctional relationship with them, and a deeply concerning rise in eating disorders.” Zarathustra reflects on developments in CAMHS in a time of changing needs and now austerity.
Oliver James’ condescending psychology
In Saturday’s Grauniad there was a debate on the topic of “Should workplaces have on-site psychiatrists?” Personally I think it would make more sense for workplaces to have on-site counsellors and mental health first aiders than psychiatrists, but that’s not really the point of this post. I’ve been irritated by the condescension of Oliver James, one of […]
Frontline Friday round-up 15th February 2013
Our round-up of frontline blogs we liked from the week of 11th February 2013 - this Valentine’s week, relationships that aren’t working well, including between policy and healthcare, the Government and the police, and Ministers’ poor relationship with the facts about the bedroom tax.
Listening and measuring
Jonathon Tomlinson writing on Abetternhs’s blog argues that the bureaucracy attached to the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is damaging the patient-doctor relationship: “Much of what is really important, the ability to listen seriously and have meaningful conversations with patients is being lost by the demand that every interaction is measured…”