GPs remain the patient’s advocate, even if the loss of continuity plus overwhelming demand has lessened this. General practice carries out 90% of all NHS activity, with patients averaging around nine contacts per year. As a result, it is a conduit for all patients’ frustrations. As a result, patients perceive GPs and their staff to be less overworked than secondary care teams.īut I believe there’s a more fundamental reason for the abuse practices face, and therein lies a bitter irony: that, despite the rhetoric of ministers and the media, general practice is the most accessible part of the NHS. Compared with the overt chaos of A&Es and hospitals more generally, GP waiting rooms look relatively serene, as much of the demand is through telephone lines, or econsult. One of the reasons is that the pressures are less visible in general practice.
Some patients display a visceral hatred that goes beyond frustration. Our case studies involve persistent hostility, premeditated vandalism and social media vendettas. But the stories told to us are different to the flashes of anger faced in A&E. This is not to disregard the abuse faced by, say, A&E doctors and staff.
Yet general practice is absorbing the bulk of patients’ frustrations and the associated abuse.
0 kommentar(er)
