RCGP Heritage

RCGP Heritage

By RCGP HeritageSociety & CultureDocumentaryMedicineHealth & FitnessHistory
Download on the App Store

RCGP Heritage episodes

  • Practitioner self-care - GB
    I do think there have been silver linings from Covid.  I think the fact that mental health, and mental well-being and, you know, our priorities in life, and what really matters within society – the focus on that during the acute phase of the pandemic was wonderful to see, um, and I really think that’s something that we need to hold onto, and continue… I do feel that as we get more distant from the acute pandemic, people are forgetting the lessons they learned, um, and that is a shame because while I love my job, all of my jobs, um, you know, I try very hard to hold on that… no-one is guaranteed a tomorrow…  We do need to sit with our priorities sometimes, and we do need to take time for ourselves, and space for ourselves...   
    2 min
  • Broadening teams - AW
    Most certainly, I think we need to work with different professionals, within primary care – that is self-evident, and our pharmacy colleagues already dealing with minor illness, they were hugely with the vaccine immunisation for Covid, during that time.  We communicate with them by phone often, we’ve got a, we’re able to fire through prescriptions electronically, which – the patient doesn’t have to wait.  So using, using pharmacists has been great.  Nur-, nursing staff coming in and working with us has been a great boon, and they do things that we don’t do, and we do things that they don’t, obviously.  But we talk to each other and if you work in an environment where there is mutual respect, and mutual understanding of what individuals are doing within the organisation, then collectively that’s benefit for the patient.   
    1 min
  • Remote consultation and the team - HSL
    We will never go back from having the video and telephone options, video and audio options.  It’s right and proper.  It allows for convenience, but it’s made us really reflect on what it is to be a good doctor… When you consult remotely, you are sensory impaired – you are sensory deprived – all you’ve got is your ears if it’s a telephone consultation…  We have learned about the value of all members of the team...  And I think changes about the way we work with allied healthcare professionals and broadening the team have probably accelerated, and that’s been a good thing too.
    2 min
  • Pandemic preparedness - JL
    The risk is, a bit like we were planning for flu – it’s the same as the war, you tend to plan for the last war – um, and I think if there’s anything you can learn from that, and we did learn from that, what you also need is huge flexibility of thought and approach, because the next war won’t be the same as the last war, and I think that it’s really important, in terms of preparedness, we, there will be another pandemic, it’s a matter of when – it’s not an if.  When it will be, I don’t know.  What it will be, I don’t know, but I’m hoping that some of the lessons that we’ve learned about, uh, human resilience, the planning, how to go about this, will be of value to future generations 
    1 min
  • Pandemic preparedness - SM
    I think pandemic preparedness is obviously going to go up the agenda,.. but, actually, the next pandemic will be very different.  The vaccine technology – the ability to roll out vaccines extremely rapidly, which are focused on a particular virus, um, is quite remarkable,.. and, you know, in future, you have the first 50-100 days of a pandemic beginning as critical, within 100 days we could have a vaccine fully operational… The bio-technological advances that we have made and the scientists – these are the hero of the hour – the next heroes of the hour are probably the logisticians – the biotechnology is only so good if you can actually get it into people’s arms… That was probably one of the hardest things, as a vaccination centre, was having to change sails very rapidly – don’t do this, do that… changing, uh, cancelling people when vaccines don’t arrive  
    2 min
  • Investment and the interconnectedness of the health and care landscape - LD
    I think how our system is interconnected is really important and we’re seeing that, really seeing that at the moment.  You know, if an ambulance is unable to safely, you know, leave a patient in a Casualty department, that affects me massively as a rural GP.  You know, if there’s clogs in the system in one part, there’s going to be pressure on the system in another part, and so we need to work collaboratively together.  That gets difficult, but how we get rid of those silos is just ever more important…     
    We set up a group called the No More Silos group, um, which was designed in broadest terms to improve the flow of patients through hospital, so it aligned GP primary care services and hospitals throughout the country…  Initially, we were all in it together.  As time has gone on and the pressures have ramped up,.. I can see silos slowly coming back in again, talking about ‘your staff’ and ‘our staff’.  It’s going to be really important that we don’t lose the focus we had. 
    2 min
  • Consultant physician at the heart of the 21st century community - AH
    I think, I think the thing is, now, that GPs have become almost Community Physicians, they’ve become Consultant Physicians in the Community, a-, and things are really complicated now… I do think ten minute consultations are outdated now for what we do, and I think they should be longer consultations.  I think fifteen minutes should be the norm, but if you have fifteen minutes you see less people, and you’ve got to work out what you are going to do with the demand… Unless the demand is sorted out, then I think it’s a problem.   
    1 min
  • Importance of GP - MM
    There are a set of legitimate criticisms of where we are in general practice, at the moment and we need to understand those, a-, and listen to them.  But, principally, the long-term problem for general practice is that it’s been regarded by people who don’t understand general practice as largely a simple, transactional place – rather than what we describe as the place where the majority of people get the majority of their care, where you manage uncertainty, and where you use the power of trusting relationships as a therapeutic tool... It’s not an easy message to get across to policy-makers, but that’s fundamentally what general practice is, is about… we need general practice to be able to deliver high quality care with good outcomes at, at best value, at the lowest cost which is, all the international evidence suggests, a system based around general practice is more likely to do than a system based around hospitals.     
    1 min
  • Pride in what was achieved - PS
    We’ve learned that primary care is resilient, that we can deliver effectively and quickly – I mean, look at the vaccine rollout – by and large primary care was even better than the organised clinics.   That we can learn and adapt to new ways of working, such as remote consulting which, which has got to be here to stay because it’s really convenient for lots and lots of patients...  It’s also boosted patient autonomy – so, for example, I’m telling people to go and buy a little blood pressure machine... and then they can take their own blood pressures and they can send me emails and I can keep much more in touch with them… The other lesson we’ve learned is that, if want to, we can change quickly… We’ve also come out of this pandemic, talking about RCGP Wales, um, with closer, stronger, more trusting relationships with, um, Welsh government and members of the Senedd.
    2 min
  • Pride in what was achieved - NK
    You can be so proud of your general practice teams.  They, um, we were creative and innovative, and resilient and faced the biggest challenge that our community will ever face… And they stepped up, and they cared for their patients, and they cared for their teams, and they did the very best they could in the hardest circumstances imaginable…. This is the moment that everything has shifted for general practice… This is how we move from the 1948 model, even the 2004 model to a model of general practice that is fit for the future, that is sustainable, and that thrives, that works for my children and their children as well as my grandparents who don’t speak English, but is also a place and a space where our workforce feels valued and cared about, and wants to work and wants to stay.   
    1 min

About RCGP Heritage

From the publisher's feed

The Royal College of General Practitioners was founded in 1952 to raise standards within the profession.  It has the largest membership of the medical Royal Colleges and passing its rigorous membership examination is now compulsory for all aspiring General Practitioners.