GPS also need to help patients they never see

✒ I WRITE regarding your article relating to the upcoming retirement of Gloucestershire GP Diane Marson.

I’m sure the doctor will enjoy her retirement immensely but I have to say that her comments are misguided and likely to put off the very people who might, most legitimately, need help.

There has been much backslapping from the profession and the country for itself over the last three years while medical professionals have effectively shut down most services and actively advocated greater inertia amongst what was already an obesity pandemic.

I suspect her comments relate to that percentage of the population that appears to excessively seek attention but there are equally as many people who rarely see their GP or practice where even the most simple of requests could uncover an underlying problem.

During the pandemic, much was said about kindness and the necessity of being kind to others, but remember that it is vary rare for a GP practice to actively manage it’s patient list or check up on those they rarely see, instead prioritising scarce resources on those who visit them most.

This system of chance didn’t improve any over the lockdown period but several practices found time to commission building works on their premises while those registered with them went without access to in-person support at all having applied for bounce back funding for doing so.

Even the receptionists at my own practice told me that they rarely had to come into work or perform work duties during the furlough periods while the staff focussed on office refitting.

Similarly the central government support programme was heavily focussed around maternity and childcare with next to no services for the wider electorate, moving swiftly onto the crisis in Ukraine to avoid wider scrutiny on it’s prioritisations.

It’s becoming clear that something needs to give, and perhaps that means explaining to GPS directly that they need to sit down with their existing patient list, say no to any new applicant that hasn’t already got an NHS number and ask themselves how much they actually know about the needs of the people registered with them and whether they’ve checked to see if they are okay moving out of the last outbreak.

After all, a mother only looks after her own home comforts and her offspring, never anyone else.

Miss L Thomas