11 October - A potentially good but little known medical facility
Some NHS managers gave a presentation to Bexley’s Adult’s Services Scrutiny
Committee on Monday on how they were trying to improve the GP service - so there
is no shortage of things they urgently need to do. I last saw a GP at the end of January 2020 when
a bad dose of flu wouldn’t go away. Maybe it was Covid but no one outside of
a Chinese laboratory knew anything about it at the time. Since then I have
not
been able to get any GP appointment at all and my opinion of the services (not) provided is at rock bottom.
But maybe I have missed a trick because alternative services are now available away from
the registered GP at medical hubs. Open until 8 p.m. on Monday
to Friday evenings and all day at the weekend. A patient survey with
around 14,000 respondents clearly showed a preference for face to face
consultations and the aim now was to make 75% of appointments F2F and same day whenever possible.
Bexley is providing more F2F appointments than elsewhere within our six nearest
borough neighbours.
The capacity provided is often not taken up especially at weekends and No
Shows were wasting even more resources. “Usage is nowhere near what was expected”
largely because people prefer to see their own GP rather than go to an unfamiliar site.
A GP said that in his recent experience the service was running very well and the only possible downside was the inevitable
inability to see the registered GP. (Am I
missing out on something? I have not known the name of my GP for more than 20
years and I don’t think I have ever seen the same one twice in that time. A hub
looks all positive to me.)
A doctor from Erith said that he is usually able to offer same day appointments
at his surgery failing which her refers patients to the hub but Councillor Day (Slade Green & North End) hadn’t found reception staff to be aware of hubs. “Is this something confined to specific areas?”
It was admitted that the survey showed performance in the North to be less than
ideal and the appointment booking software was not yet good enough.
Another doctor said that patients are simply unaware of the hub service.
It was
supposedly publicised in the Bexley Magazine but in a perusal of the last three issues I
failed to find any reference to it. A Google search was a little confusing until
I found the following. With capacity currently exceeding demand it might be a
good bet for patients registered with
Bexley Group Practice or any other local
outfit that has forgotten what medical care is.
