‘What does “good” look like?’
Blimey. That’s even more existential than my ‘Are we turning the corner?’ question.
It was posed by David Haslam during his opening address in which he a) demonstrated admirable restraint given the good kicking Pulse has just given NICE b) pointed out that managing multi-morbidity isn’t all about chucking all the relevant NICE guidance at the polypathological patient. Spot on. That way madness lies.
Whatever good does look like, it didn’t, momentarily, look like tomorrow afternoon. Because my previous blog obviously jinxed Jezza’s scheduled appearance. Fortunately, Dr Chaand Nagpaul has heroically stepped into the breach.
Onto the ‘Is general practice sustainable?’ debate. Yes, it is, was the consensus. So long as the Usual Suspects with three letter acronyms would just 1 Be more compassionate (Gerada) 2 Back off and stop being so hideous (de Giorgio) 3 Stop causing so much hassle that completing a stress survey leads you to the conclusion that you should be calling the Samaritans (Swinyard).
Lots of debate, some blood spilled and Swinyard scoring highly on the laffometer. But the biggest cheer, involving just about everyone minus one notable, was the comment from de Giorgio that ‘Patients take the piss’. Respect.
Dr Tony Copperfield is a GP in Essex. You can follow him on Twitter @DocCopperfield.
