"Continuity of care"

It is with regret that I have left this surgery after 17 years a patient here and at Church Lane. Despite moving further away and not being very convenient to travel to on public transport, I felt the continuity was worth it. But unfortunately the Nelson can not offer continuity anymore and I think this is to patients’ detriment.

Being the only practical way I could make an appointment online, I took a telephone appointment with an unknown GP through Ask First. No advance appointments were offered. I was suffering quite severe symptoms of perimenopause including low mood. A male GP called me. He was perfectly nice, but as soon as he heard my symptoms  I felt like he did not want to help other than to get me an appointment with a particular female GP with a special interest in this area, who happens to be my usual GP.

All credit to the patient care navigators who called me back to offer me an appointment, but it meant waiting another two weeks. Or I could speak to another random female GP sooner. May I ask why, if it was not important that the GP with special interest dealt with my problem, that the male GP was unable to? Women’s health is not a niche area. We are half the population and if a male GP feels unable to help with something that half the population experiences then it suggests a sizeable gap in their skillset.

But I opted to wait to speak with the GP best experienced. They booked me a double appointment, which again I have to give credit for. I had some blood tests and was able to access the results within 48 hours. But it was another two weeks before the GP contacted me and asked me to make another appointment to discuss them. I tried to book an appointment through Ask First but repeatedly got an error message. I called the surgery and was told this GP had no appointments available and to call again in a couple of days. I did, but again she had no appointments available and I was told to call again in a week. A week later, still no appointments. All they could offer was an appointment with someone entirely different who I didn’t know at all.

I don’t expect to see the same GP for every appointment but there must be a better system for following up on ongoing issues rather than making patients start from scratch with a new GP. And, again, if it didn’t matter who I saw why couldn’t the first GP have helped me? At this point it was nearly 6 weeks since I had that first contact and my low mood had not been addressed at all, and there was no indication of whether I would be able to see the GP. Having teams who manage a patient’s care behind the scenes is all well and good for the GPs, but the kind of continuity that is seen by the patient is important to them too.

I understand the difficulties in offering continuity of care in an increasingly pressured service. Maybe it’s not the practice’s fault at all, though I think some flexibility could be offered (as I left I checked and noticed there was a same-day appointment available with the same GP on Ask First, but the practice could not offer me this appointment at any point that I asked). But this is the reality for patients. It is not good care and it will inevitably lead to worse outcomes for patients. If the Nelson truly believes in its right care, right time, right place mantra then it clearly fell well short of that here.