Patient care in the new world of COVID-19
The pace of change in primary care is unlike anything I’ve seen in my two decades in the NHS, whole scale transformation of appointment systems has taken place.
The switch to telephone triage for all practice activity was achieved in a seven-day period. Video consultation technology went from a hypothesis for most, to widespread release and implementation in less than a week.
These changes usually take months if not longer.
The conduit for this transformation has been the training and upskilling of staff including new protocols and processes to write for triage assessment, the safety of staff and patients. The creation of new home visiting teams and new death certification management to name a few.
The key to this has been the power of partnership working with acute care providers, community nursing providers and adult social care, working in hubs centred around the needs of local populations.
Barriers have shifted and evaporated in some instances and reflects on progress which has been rapid, energised and ambitious.
We are helping to prepare our patients for difficult times ahead. Some of the best medicine we practice is simply allowing people to be heard. Promising to walk alongside our communities through whatever the future holds.
They know we can’t stop the virus ourselves. But there is great strength in our staff and patients knowing they are not on their own.
Dr Helena Ebbs
Helena has been a GP partner at Pickering Medical Practice since 2012. After graduating from Sheffield Medical School in 2003 she spent her first few years working in South Yorkshire in hospital medicine, before moving to North Yorkshire to train as a GP. She has an interest in mental health, frailty and rural general practice.
