Staff training at our Doctors’ surgery.

Incidentally, GPs can write prescriptions following a hospital's recommendation. I know they can because I've had a number of prescriptions over the last year following a letter to the GP from the hospital.

mumofmadboys

GPs are not paid for each consultation. They are paid for the number of patients registered with the practice. The amount of inaccurate information on these threads is huge

So they take on more patients than they can reasonably manage!!! £££££££
There are too many negative experiences here for there to be a simple lack of understanding.

Coco Don't you have scales at home? Doesn't your GP trust you to weigh yourself? I doubt if your height has changed dramatically. You can monitor neuropathy yourself too. What treatment are you expecting?

Coco51

growstuff

eazybee

At a meeting yesterday a member had a suspected heart attack; having called an ambulance we sought help/advice from the surgery next door, and not a doctor was on the premises; common apparently on Tuesday mornings although not even under the pretence of 'Training.' Closed on Friday afternoon for that!

I'm not sure what a GP could do, if the person was having a heart attack.

Medically trained CPR?

A person with a suspected heart attack doesn't need CPR. The patient needs to get to a hospital.

growstuff

eazybee

At a meeting yesterday a member had a suspected heart attack; having called an ambulance we sought help/advice from the surgery next door, and not a doctor was on the premises; common apparently on Tuesday mornings although not even under the pretence of 'Training.' Closed on Friday afternoon for that!

I'm not sure what a GP could do, if the person was having a heart attack.

Medically trained CPR?

Oldbat1

Congratulations to those who “understand” what goes on behind the scenes but that isn’t remotely helpful to sick people.

Quite right Oldbat1!

Doodledog

It’s difficult when surgeries are already stretched to the max and appointments are all but impossible to arrange; but would you rather have outdated systems and no new innovations? The ability to book online, or to see your notes are just two options that spring to mind. Staff will have to learn to do things like this (the protocols as well as the systems). When are they supposed to do it?

I’m not altogether sure that the new systens ARE better than the old ones. I’m sick of hanging on for half an hour, to be told that I’ll have to call again tomorrow and will be lucky to get an appointment six weeks hence - I’ll be forced to have the consultation with the Nurse Practitioner, who will not be competent to treat the problem and will have a word with the GP and call back - but they don’t.
I have a telephone annual diabetes check Monday (an appointment I discovered by chance) - I’m interested to see how the crucial neuropathy test and weight / height monitoring can be conducted over the telephone!

I was prescribed a medication following a hospital test, on 12th April - only the doctor cannot make out a prescription on the hospital recommendation, I have to have a telephone appointment but that is not until 6th May. The whole purpose of the medication is to prevent a rapidly recurring infection, and I’ll probably have to have another course of antibiotics in between.
It’s not possible to go to another practice because there isn’t one.

Sparklefizz

I had been trying to get through to my surgery on the phone and kept getting a recorded message saying Sadly we are under-staffed and so busy ......"

I gave up on trying to phone and drove there. When I walked in, there was a banner across the reception saying "Goodbye and Good Luck" and people were milling around with drinks ..... clearly a leaving party was going on with cake and presents!! So tanith - spot on!

Nothing to do with staff training, but to me, this leaving ‘do’ should have taken place after work, when the surgery had closed.

Congratulations to those who “understand” what goes on behind the scenes but that isn’t remotely helpful to sick people.

It’s good to get some explanations from people who actually know. Unfortunately many people comment without having any idea of anything that goes on in the background at a GP Practice.

I work in the health service. Training is endless and mostly mandatory such as safeguarding adults and children, manual handling and basic life support etc. etc.
This is largely 'invisible' (like spending a fortune on having your house rewired which no one will notice) and both clinical and admin staff alike will be expected to do the same. Much of it also has to be repeated on a yearly basis.
Audit and governance also comes under the 'training' banner. The department I work in has audit every month and governance every quarter.
It is also linked to the insurance premium paid by the establishment. About 90% compliance needs to be achieved or additional payments are added.

There’s a huge amount of mandatory training required to keep up to date and work safely. Perhaps some of you don’t understand how quickly things can change in medicine.
Also lots of admin to be done.
And deep cleaning of clinical areas. The list is endless.

Training constitutes different things within GP practices. It could be training with new functionality with the GP Clinical system, first aid training or it could be to clear the backlog believe me it’s beneficial for them

Hobbs1

My GP surgery has a Practice Manager, an IT “ expert” and 6 admin/ reception staff. I don’t know how many GPs as I have never been lucky enough to get an appointment, only a telephone consultation during lockdown. the one and only time my telephone call has been answered by a receptionist and the GP called back, they no longer do repeat prescriptions over the counter, the patients have to request on line, all patient records are on the computer so very little filing or paperwork as it’s all instantly available so how do they spend their working hours I wonder………

Sounds like our Practice! Last year we were waiting up to THREE WEEKS for a repeat prescription. It is now down to 7 working days which could still mean 10 days if there’s a weekend involved.

They always say there is a shortage of Pharmacy staff and dispensers. If you query why you can’t get a GP appointment it’s because they are extremely busy due to the shortage of doctors. I look at the list on the door and most of them have gone part time!

When you do get an appointment or have to go for blood tests the whole place is like the Marie Celeste!! I have been the only person in the waiting area at times and friends tell me they have experienced the same.

The phone system is dire. We have to listen to about 5 mins of a GP explaining that they are receiving an unprecedented number of calls, why don’t we contact them online (err, because we can’t make appts online) and after listening to all this stuff which sounds like a WWII warning, we then get told we are 19th in the queue!!

My gp surgery is very good and yes they do have training days which as you say are necessary. They triage your call at reception and give you an appointment or call back with the appropriate clinician, which could be gp , nurse practioner. paradmedic or pharmacist. I think my surgery do very well considering the amount of patients and the clincians do see you face to face.

It's the monthly PTI meetings.
All counts towards the QoF points

GrannyGravy13

maddyone

GrannyGravy13

I appreciate they have to be up to date with the latest innovations, but closing completely, is this totally necessary.

When we have new computer systems, when we have product updates, issues relating to Health & Safety we do not close, but manage a rota system of updating/staff teaching.

So when would you rather they do it? In their own time?

It should be possible to organise that half of the practice trains in the morning, the other half in the afternoon. That way the surgery can remain open for its patients.

Staff should of course be paid to attend training hours if they occur on a day when they are not usually at work.

But that's not an efficient use of time because whoever is doing the training would need to double up and be present for both sessions. It's far better for everybody to be present at the same time and raise questions/concerns just once.

In any case, how often do people really need to see their GP within hours? If something is really that urgent, it probably needs attention from emergency services.

I don't know about other practices, but we get a text every month warning us about the closure for training and can work round that.

NanKate

Each month our surgery closes on a Tuesday afternoon for staff training.

There appears to be no improvement in the services we get from the surgery. We wonder what they are actually doing.

Any idea ?

I have no medical or GP Administrator knowledge but have always thought the GPs would be sat behind their computer, more often than not, being updated on the latest on asthma or whatever. I also imagined that the medical and administrative staff would need to know of any changes in their area, updates on systems in the Practice, etc.

What do the people, who make the type of comments the OP does, recognise as training, I wonder?

maddyone

GrannyGravy13

I appreciate they have to be up to date with the latest innovations, but closing completely, is this totally necessary.

When we have new computer systems, when we have product updates, issues relating to Health & Safety we do not close, but manage a rota system of updating/staff teaching.

So when would you rather they do it? In their own time?

It should be possible to organise that half of the practice trains in the morning, the other half in the afternoon. That way the surgery can remain open for its patients.

Staff should of course be paid to attend training hours if they occur on a day when they are not usually at work.

Oldbat
Sadly there are not enough GPs in the country, and with an increasing population, roughly half a million a year, and many doctors leaving the country to work elsewhere where working conditions are better, this will be an increasing problem, not a decreasing problem. That is the reason it’s hard to access GP appointments. Having said that, I’m more than happy to speak to my GP on the phone and much prefer it to actually going into the surgery. Obviously some face to face visits are needed, but mostly they’re not necessary and the doctor can treat more patients by phone than face to face.

Foxygloves

mumofmadboys

Protected Learning Time is once a month and staff who don't work that particular day of the week come in for it and are paid or have time off in lieu. Everyone is expected to attend.

What I can’t come to terms with is why every practice with a Health Trust has the same protected training tie, leaving 111, the Urgent Care Centre (average waiting time 4 hours) and A&E as the only alternatives.
Surely it would make more sense for half the surgeries to be open one week, while the other half had their INSET and vice versa?

They don’t all have the same protected learning time, certainly where I worked. However, logistically it makes sense for closely located practices to be available when there are joint meetings, external speakers, and training which is relevant to all. Otherwise people would be moaning because consultant x the orthopaedic surgeon isn’t available ever on a (say) Thursday afternoon because he or she has to go individually around the 50 practices in that area to talk to them individually about (say) the knee referral pathway. Honestly, it’s much, much more complex and important to the practices than people realise.

I am pleased for those of you who have good medical support. Our surgery today has just informed patients via Facebook (heaven help those who don’t have access) they can now only order repeat prescriptions on 3days a week during two hour slot am and pm. We patients cannot make any appts without speaking to a GP by telephone first. We can do econsult which opens at 8am and is unavailable by 8.10am as all slots taken. It is the same with phone calls opens at 8am when you will be in long queue! Lowest number I’ve ever been is 17 before giving up. Definitely not progress in my eyes. We live in a very pleasant market town which has only on GPs practice so we can’t go elsewhere as nearest town is 17miles away. I really feel for people who don’t have mobiles, do not have internet access, those who cannot hear to use the telephone, anyone who has no family to assist them with the most basic function of getting medical attention. Sad sad state in 2023. The local authority keep giving planning permission for more houses and the infrastructure is simply not there! Rant over.

“Within” not “with”

mumofmadboys

Protected Learning Time is once a month and staff who don't work that particular day of the week come in for it and are paid or have time off in lieu. Everyone is expected to attend.

What I can’t come to terms with is why every practice with a Health Trust has the same protected training tie, leaving 111, the Urgent Care Centre (average waiting time 4 hours) and A&E as the only alternatives.
Surely it would make more sense for half the surgeries to be open one week, while the other half had their INSET and vice versa?

mumofmadboys

Protected Learning Time is once a month and staff who don't work that particular day of the week come in for it and are paid or have time off in lieu. Everyone is expected to attend.

Quite, well said.
Although as my daughter was a Practice Partner, she sometimes had to go into the Practice for meetings during her time off and didn’t get paid for it. But all staff who were not Partners got paid. That’s as it should be.