I was inspired by this article in this week's BMJ. I am a jobbing,
nobody and hick GP in Chingford, North East London, an area where I am
seeing the fallout of the Credit Crunch in the Consulting Room day in and
day out. In addition, I have a sub-interest in rehabilitating people with
chronic conditions back to work or sustaining them in the workplace.
Recently, there has been a sustained effort by the Department of Work and
Pensions in the UK to encourage those on long term disability back to the
workplace. This is very welcome and I concur that work is good for health.
This trend has been supported by an initiative from the Royal College of
General Practitioners.
Yet, hitherto, there has been virtually nothing on how difficult it is to
manage a chronic condition and the fact that this represents almost a
second career in itself requiring massive organisational skills on the
part of the individual and frequently unbelievable logistical efforts by
health services that frequently do not repay the patient's commitment or
engagement.
Interestingly, whilst there has been a lot of discussion of the role of
Primary Care and its accesibility through, in the UK, the Darzi report,
Secondary Care remains in patient contact for non Acute problems and
especially Chronic Disease Management the same 9 to 5 Monday to Friday
phenomenon that it always has been.
I think this article strongly supports the view that every time we write a
referral to a new service, request that they undertake a new
investiigation (even as simple as a blood test) or ask them to attend
another outpatients appointment, we need to think hard about the effort
and resources that will entail our patients with chronic conditions have
to go through.
As a GP the Patient Experience element of my pay is increasing. As this
trend, which is altogether fair I think, spreads, can we really afford not
to take this aspect of delivering healthcare seriously?
Dr Shahid Dadabhoy
GP
The Microfaculty,
107/109 Chingford Mount Road,
Chingford,
London E4 8LT
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests:
No competing interests
20 August 2009
Shahid M Dadabhoy
General Practitioner
The Microfaculty, 107/109 Chingford Mount Road, Chingford, London E4 8LT
Rapid Response:
At last, some recognition of a growing problem.
I was inspired by this article in this week's BMJ. I am a jobbing,
nobody and hick GP in Chingford, North East London, an area where I am
seeing the fallout of the Credit Crunch in the Consulting Room day in and
day out. In addition, I have a sub-interest in rehabilitating people with
chronic conditions back to work or sustaining them in the workplace.
Recently, there has been a sustained effort by the Department of Work and
Pensions in the UK to encourage those on long term disability back to the
workplace. This is very welcome and I concur that work is good for health.
This trend has been supported by an initiative from the Royal College of
General Practitioners.
Yet, hitherto, there has been virtually nothing on how difficult it is to
manage a chronic condition and the fact that this represents almost a
second career in itself requiring massive organisational skills on the
part of the individual and frequently unbelievable logistical efforts by
health services that frequently do not repay the patient's commitment or
engagement.
Interestingly, whilst there has been a lot of discussion of the role of
Primary Care and its accesibility through, in the UK, the Darzi report,
Secondary Care remains in patient contact for non Acute problems and
especially Chronic Disease Management the same 9 to 5 Monday to Friday
phenomenon that it always has been.
I think this article strongly supports the view that every time we write a
referral to a new service, request that they undertake a new
investiigation (even as simple as a blood test) or ask them to attend
another outpatients appointment, we need to think hard about the effort
and resources that will entail our patients with chronic conditions have
to go through.
As a GP the Patient Experience element of my pay is increasing. As this
trend, which is altogether fair I think, spreads, can we really afford not
to take this aspect of delivering healthcare seriously?
Dr Shahid Dadabhoy
GP
The Microfaculty,
107/109 Chingford Mount Road,
Chingford,
London E4 8LT
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests