Unherdable Cat
A partner in a modern group practice that has survived two new contracts and many, many re-organisations of the NHS over the past 30 odd years, I live in hope that one of these days the DH and managers throughout the NHS will begin to understand how general practice and primary care work - and are funded and managed. GPs always look for win-win situations - hence this blog!
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Comment on: Swine flu but still no flu plan! Is this World Class planning?
I'm sorry if I've upset a manager who is having problems from his/her end of the planning process: I agree not all GPs are perfect - and disaster planning (and the necessary meetings to agree it) - before the disaster arrives - *can* seem to be less important than dealing with the urgent issues of reducing unscheduled admissions to reduce costs - and other PCT imperatives. My major complaint is that we used to have a pandemic flu plan: in the business of reorganising both NHS structures and local authority ones, it seems to have got lost somewhere! From a *GP* viewpoint, as with the terrorist attack plans we all drew up after 9/11, what is needed is a clear picture of what will be done and by whom in the locality as well as nationally in any emergency scenario e.g. multiple casualties, epidemic illness, terrorist attacks, world war III and others: what is the role of civil authorities, emergency services, all branches of the NHS (including GPs, their staff and the whole PHCT - primary health care team: we don't work in isolation!), what is the Command and Control structure, by whom and when is the management of the emergency deemed to pass from one stage to the next, how supplies/resources are allocated and accessed and above all, the communication structures. I don't need meetings for most of this - and I had thought (like Alan Johnson) that we already had all of this - just waiting for the phone numbers to be updated. Hence my despair: and worries about all the other disaster plans supposed to be in existence! PS If you want to get your GPs to a meeting, why not a two-to-one offer? Cancel two other meetings they consider unimportant! Even better, give them the total plan to study first - or instead, - inviting comments and suggesting a meeting if they would like one?
