"Policy changes impacting continuation of care"

My husband and I have been grateful recipients of quality care by our GPs at our medical practice under the Glasgow health board.

When we joined the practice we lived in the practice’s catchment area.  At some point (unknown) a decision was apparently made, jointly by the health board and the practice, to reduce the catchment area in order to manage increasing patient numbers.

We subscribe to the practice newsletter and to my knowledge there was never any communication to patients about the change in catchment area, so when we moved home, remaining in the original catchment area, we had no idea that we would be taken off the practice list.

Our decision to move home, among many other reasons, was to find accommodation that would help with increasingly compromised mobility as we continue to age; myself with rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and POTs; my partner only one day post knee replacement surgery in one knee and facing a second knee replacement in the coming months.

We chose a home 130 yards away from our existing home, and equidistant to the GP practice, which helps us maintain the community relationships we have built up. The new property means we have no stairs to contend with and plentiful lifts, with 24 hour concierge/secure services that make us feel very secure.

Having moved home, we immediately notified the GP practice of our new address, only to be told that we could not remain with this practice as a result of their changed catchment area. We remain in what was our original postal area, and no more than a few yards from our old home.  We decided to move within what we understood was the appropriate catchment area as we wanted to remain in the care of a practice we had come to trust. Had we known of the policy change, we might have made different choices about where we would move to, but neither the practice nor the health board seem to have taken steps to inform existing patients of the impact of  this boundary change. 

I need to underline that we are not new patients moving into an area not covered by the practice. We are existing patients who have had to seek a new GP without notice, as a result of this arbitrary policy change. We have moved 130 yards from our old home, where, if we had remained would have continued to be served by this practice. 

Given our continuing care needs, I approached the practice to see if we could remain with the doctors who knew us well, especially as we had not moved beyond the old boundaries where this practice still looks after patients. Approaches to the practice were met with rigid statements of policy. While the manager would make arrangements to discuss this with us, I was informed that they would not be able to do anything to help and that we would have two weeks to register with a new practice.

As I write now, my husband has only today been discharged following the first knee replacement and is in the middle of a significant care episode. To be subject to the capricious decision that we have only two weeks to ensure continuity of his care, seems heartless and extremely poor patient care.

Now anxious about our needs being met seamlessly, including complex medication regimes, the burden is on us to negotiate initial assessment, registration and acceptance into a practice with doctors and other team members who are completely unknown to us.

It is more than disappointing that in today’s climate that speaks of patient centred care, we patients still suffer from poor information links, lack of consultation with patient representative organisations, arbitrary decision making in conjunction with health board and no apparent awareness of the potential impact of decisions being taken.  In addition it feels care-less, to simply refuse to engage with those most adversely affected in any constructive way that might ease the unexpected and unwelcome outcome of poorly instituted bureaucratic decisions..