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14.31 A locum’s lot

I hardly have time to write this because I’ve been so busy! I am locuming for the day in Selby, north Yorkshire.

I arrived at the surgery at 8am – but didn’t manage to finish the admin accumulated since last week, when I worked Tuesday and Wednesday at this practice, before starting surgery at 8.30am.

One of my first patients was late, which contributed to running 30 minutes late. Several patients presented with two or three problems. Also, due to difficulties in obtaining appointments, I was reviewing some patients previously seen by other GPs, which makes follow-up difficult.

After a booked surgery, we shared extras booked in at 11.15am, and eventually shared out visits at about 12.15pm.

I nipped out to the shop for a sandwich to eat at my desk because I was still out on visits when due to back in surgery covering on-call queries. Now I’ve just caught up with phone calls and am ready to start afternoon surgery – there will be two of us seeing as many patients as care to declare themselves ‘urgent’ at 5-minute intervals. So much for doing some work for my appraisal!