In a year when headlines have routinely turned the world upside down, it’s reassuring to read one stating the bleedin’ obvious: ‘Adding non-medical roles in general practice reduces patient satisfaction, study finds’. Next week, presumably, ‘Punching heartsinks of no benefit, but improves GP morale’?
Of course patients aren’t satisfied. It’s a deeply unsatisfactory situation. The Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) might look good on paper, but in practice, it’s pretty much the nightmare we predicted.
Many ARRS workers are being thrust into frontline situations where they’re out of their depth. As a result, patients feel – and often are – fobbed off. Being told, ‘I haven’t got a GP slot to deal with your chest pain, but I can offer a double appointment with our social prescriber’, isn’t going to satisfy anyone, least of all the coroner.
And many of them have to work across a number of different practices, each with their own philosophies, protocols and admin workflows. Cue confusion and discontinuity. No wonder staff turnover is high and patient ratings are low.
We GPs are dissatisfied, too. Often, the scheme just serves to remind us of our USP: the ability to multitask in an extraordinarily time-efficient way. Those deconstructed, delegated aspects of our consultation designed to give us a bit of breathing space seem to take others at least 20 minutes a pop and often end up back in our lap.
All of which is hardly surprising given that the scheme was a panicky governmental response to the penny dropping over the GP workforce crisis, wrapped in a bribe to ensure onboarding to PCNs. It offered a deranged selection of staff based on their availability rather than our need. Had the money gone to individual practices for them to decide on the recruitment of useful staff doing useful stuff, the headlines might be different.
But, ‘Study finds properly resourced and staffed primary care improves patient satisfaction’? That’s about as likely as, ‘Energy bills outstrip mortgage repayments’, right?
READERS' COMMENTS [3]
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Absolutely spot on
I thought the headline was about today’s elections
Made in Britain. Imported from Abroad. Sold off by Britain. Don’t tell anyone. Everything’s going to be ok. As long as you can’t see “it” / “them”.