Dear Patients

You may have read about the dispute between GPs and the NHS. This message is to inform you about the actions we will be taking here in Haslemere and the likely impact it will have upon the service we provide.

At Haslemere Health Centre, we have been limiting our consultations to 25 patients per-clinician-per-day* in line with Safe working guidance for over a year. When this capacity is full patients are redirected to other urgent services such as 111, Royal Surrey County Hospital and Petersfield Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC). In doing this we have found that we can deliver safer and more complete care for our patients, and that is more sustainable for the GPs and nurses delivering the care. We support the collective action, with other GP practices but, given the action that has already been taken, capacity will remain unchanged from our current level.

Additionally we also are increasingly returning work which other organisations (hospital, mental health and social care) request us to do on their behalf, so that the clinical responsibility and workload remains with the clinician/individual who requests it.  of the hospital system, universal electronic prescribing and the Surrey Care Record (which provides a copy of all records in one place for all organisations) facilitates each organisation to do this work for themselves. We would expect them to hand back repeat prescribing of appropriate medication to us once stabilised. The effect for our patients is that when a specialist asks for a blood test to be done, a medication to be prescribed or a result to be reviewed we would expect them to do it, rather than asking the GP to do it on their behalf.

In the actions we have taken there has not been a significant increase in our waiting times. The time until the next available appointment is consistent with other GP practices and is reflective of the greater pressure in the NHS. In essence, our assertion is that in doing the appointment well first time it prevents the need to come back.

We remain hopeful that General Practice can be a significant part of the solution to the backlog of the NHS, but we need to reset the way in which General Practice is delivered.

It is vital that we have the estate, workforce and financial resources to achieve this and we believe that this collective action will help facilitate this.

Yours sincerely

Haslemere Health Centre

* Of course, our workload does not end with 25 consultations but also includes dealing with pathology results, issuing prescriptions, reviewing letters from the hospital; answering letters and electronic communications from patients; and completing medical reports. We invest time educating the next generation of doctors and nurses. There is also time spent ensuring that the practice is meeting all quality standards for Care Quality Commission (our regulatory authority), and that our team is properly trained with respect to educational and safeguarding requirements.