Happy 75th Birthday NHS!
Like many things that are lucky enough to celebrate their 75th birthday, The NHS finds itself facing some ups and downs today. The heart is beating strong, but the knees are not what they used to be!
Like much of the NHS, The Harefield Practice has seen some difficult times of its own over recent years, and as we mark this historic moment, we can reflect on the principles that guide us and our NHS.
1. The NHS provides a comprehensive service, available to all
2. Access to NHS services is based on clinical need, not an individual’s ability to pay
3. The NHS aspires to the highest standards of excellence and professionalism
4. The patient will be at the heart of everything the NHS does
5. The NHS works across organisational boundaries
6. The NHS is committed to providing best value for taxpayers’ money
7. The NHS is accountable to the public, communities and patients that it serves
(hee.nhs.uk)
These are tough times and there are tougher times ahead. Industrial action in our hospitals by Nurses, Junior Doctors, Consultants, Radiographers and by the Ambulance Service has increased the pressure on our practice immensely. However, we have increased our operating hours, our staff numbers and our appointment numbers to help shield our patients from the impact.
Although the number of patients registered with us has not changed significantly over recent years, it is a fact of life that we are all getting older. Our patient population has aged by approximately 45,000 years and the number of requests for appointments annually has increased more than fivefold since 2018.
As with all GP Practices, we have been required to introduce triage systems to ensure that our appointments are allocated based on clinical need and we have welcomed new Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacists and Phlebotomists to our team this year to lessen the impact of triage felt by our patients.
In 2022, more than 300 million people saw their GP in the UK. That’s an average of between 4 and 5 GP appointments per year for every single person in the UK. In Harefield, that number is between 12 and 15 times per person per year, and while we have been highlighted as an area of exceptional need in the UK, the £92 per year that we are funded to provide that service, results in some of the very best value for money within the NHS.
NHS England has grouped practices together into populations of approximately 40,000 – 50,000 patients called Primary Care Networks, and together with our PCN we provide additional resources for our patients alongside the services already provided by NHS England.
- For anything that is Urgent, we have an Urgent Care Centre,
- For Minor Injuries, we have a Minor Injuries Unit,
- And for minor ailments there are very many NHS Pharmacists
- For Dental Problems we have NHS Dentists,
- For eye problems, we have NHS opticians.
- There are NHS Audiologists for hearing problems, NHS Podiatrists for Foot Problems and a host NHS mental health services available.
If you have an Emergency, you should contact the Emergency Services or visit the Emergency Department. - Thank you, with utmost sincerity, to all of our patients that use these other resources appropriately.
By not contacting the GP Practice when we are not the part of the NHS that you need, you are helping those that do need us, to access us; and you are helping us save lives in our community.
In the surgery, we are limited now, primarily, by room space. Our population has not grown, but the needs of our population has outgrown our premises over recent years. We have already converted rooms to make additional clinical space so that we can attend to more patients simultaneously, and we are already working with NHS Properties to explore options to improve that situation even further.
Meanwhile, huge numbers of additional GP appointments are provided by our PCN Hub and the government’s “Pharmacy First” program is well underway. Before calling your GP surgery, visit your Pharmacy First and your Pharmacist will tell you if you need to see a doctor, and if so, where.
As we step forward into the next 75 NHS years, our little practice finds itself as a piece of a much bigger NHS jigsaw puzzle. There is no denying that it is intensely busy, and proposals to improve the pressure on General Practices in the UK are currently few and far between, but we will continue to fight for our patients, and our patients will always be at the heart of everything we do.
