Some things got better during Lockdown
During Lockdown, many Consultants and Nurses were ‘abandoned’ by their hospital admin teams, and left to get on with running their own departments, without the heavy hand of bureaucracy – and didn’t they do a marvelous job!!!
As a patient, I suddenly found that ‘my’ consultants would phone me asking how I was getting on. Whenever I needed to see them face-to-face the appointment would be arranged in a short time, and follow-ups were planned meticulously.
If I needed a referral, instead of having to make an appointment with my GP, and all the faff of getting someone to drive me the five miles to the surgery, plus the wait once I got there, just to explain that I needed a referral; instead I sent an email, and received a phone call back from my GP – taking all of five minutes max.
But, all good things come to an end, and last week my Polio Consultant told me “I knew Lockdown was finishing when the Admin boys crept back in. My Rheumatologist .repeated the bad news this week.
It’s better to see the same doctor
If you saw the same doctor; over time you develop trust in them, Now, all of a sudden, instead of having to insist to the stony-faced Receptionist in Outpatients that ” I am here to see Dr. XXX – and will wait until they are free” – and being glared at – once I was kept waiting three hours before I got to see ‘my’ doctor. Now, appointments not only keep almost to time, but I get to see ‘my’ consultant without fuss.
Now comes proof that seeing the same doctor is better for our health. A recent study in the New Scientist reports that Denis Pereira Gray, of St Leonard’s Medical Practice, and colleagues at the University of Exeter, UK analysed the results of 22 studies from nine countries with different health systems. Eighteen of the studies found that people who saw the same doctor over time had significantly lower death rates
At a French medical conference, I was collared by French doctors, who asked if I could explain the “clinique system” to them. They meant the one where you turn up for an Outpatient appointment at your local hospital for “the clinic led by Dr. X”. And you see the first available doctor.
They were bemused; surely doctors wanted to follow up patients to see if treatment was working? I was left to try and explain that our NHS worked on numbers IN/OUT, and didn’t seem to worry too much about the outcome. They weren’t convinced – and neither was I..
Recently, the Daily Mail’s Psychiatrist Dr. Max Pemberton wrote, “take it from me: seeing the same doctor saves lives”. And
went on to say “Those (dementia patients) who were seen by a GP who knew them were ten per cent less likely to be hospitalised”.
Lockdown has shown that doctors are human, and inter-acting with patients has certainly made their work-load less stressful. The doctor-patient relationship takes time to develop, but can be invaluable when working out ‘what next’
What you can do
So it is in your own interest to understand that Doctors who really know their patient can usually see if something is wrong, often long before it is apparent to others. So, next time you phone your GP or Consultant for an appointment,
DON’T say: Can I have an appointment?
DO say : “I’d like an appointment with Doctor X. When are they free please?”
And don’t be fobbed off. Secretaries and GP Receptionists will try and fill up the next space. This is fine for them, but not for you. Dig your heals in, and insist you want to see Dr. X – they can’t refuse.
Let’s continue the good things that Lockdown Produced!