I was hearing about something unmissable called “Appointment with the Blood Hub”, but I don’t think it will win an Oscar.
It sounded like one of those emails I receive almost daily from Netflix about new films.
My inbox is either filling up with them, or messages from companies asking incessantly for my valued feedback via digital questionnaires. I wouldn’t mind, but for the fact that I don’t think anyone reads them; I never hear back if I give a rotten score.
It seems we have to push back pretty hard against the system to force change when service is bad.
I was not really in the mood for “Blood Hub” as I was still digesting Netflix’s offering to me the day before about a new “elevated horror fantasy”.
It was about a subterranean volcanic explosion in the Arctic unleashing all sorts of demons from the Earth’s bowels on an unsuspecting community above – with Icelandic subtitles.
But there was also some light relief in my bucking bronco inbox.
Union Square shopping mall in Aberdeen offered me a chance to have my picture taken with Peter Rabbit this Thursday. It’s tempting as he’s a good old fashioned hero and I almost put my name down for it, but I suspect it was really aimed at my grandkids.
Are new processes to help people or save money?
It was time to concentrate on “Blood Hub” and “stop my mind from wandering” – as Paul McCartney sang on the Sgt Pepper’s album.
Stop it, I told myself. Pay attention to what the doctor is trying to tell me on the other end of the line. She was explaining why I was told by reception staff at Old Aberdeen Medical Practice that I could no longer book a blood test direct with them.
“It’s very new, but only applies to patients like you who are arranging a blood test at your consultant’s request rather than a GP within the practice – it’s a secondary request and handled differently now by a central blood hub,” she said.
I had to call the hospital for the NHS blood hub phone number, so I could be booked into a designated medical centre for my test.
It was a big deal for me: if I was still cancer-free almost three years after my big operation I could move from six month to yearly check-ups.
I suspect this change was aimed at relieving stressed family doctors during the Covid crisis, but one sceptic I know in the NHS said it was more about practices saving money.
Contacting the mysterious blood hub sounded quite perplexing, but they were friendly and it was very straightforward.
And can you guess which designated medical facility I was finally booked into? None other than Old Aberdeen Medical Practice.
Negative responses to online consultations
Something strange is happening to our GPs.
There is controversy over their retreat into permanent remote consultation even after the worst of the pandemic, with face-to-face appointments the exception rather than the rule, and doctors deciding who to see.
But a backlash is gathering pace over this shambles; the feedback is ferocious.
I suspect uncontrolled direct access by email allowed some lunatics to bombard doctors multiple times on a daily basis, resulting in GP meltdown
A major practice in Aberdeenshire has caved in over the use of email as one of the enforced methods of consulting doctors since Covid emerged. Skene Medical Group at Westhill told patients in a statement that “eConsult” was scrapped as of June 21.
As I revealed in this column a few weeks ago, many GPs are drowning under a sea of emails. They thought it put patients safely at arm’s length, but the demand eventually had GPs by the throat.
Skene practice explained to patients that their response to eConsult had been overwhelmingly negative – and even rude or abusive at times. I suspect uncontrolled direct access by email allowed some lunatics to bombard doctors multiple times on a daily basis, resulting in GP meltdown.
Patients at Westhill are to be screened by phone and allowed face-to-face appointments if required in socially-distanced waiting rooms. This could delay non-urgent consultations as a knock-on effect.
How many other practices suffering email onslaughts will follow suit?
Restricting appointment times could be dangerous
To be honest, before Covid I found telephone chats with my GP were already becoming the norm and more convenient. But I always knew I could access a personal appointment as a safety net if preferred.
Patients often don’t know what their problem is and ramble on until a skilled GP spots something potentially serious. In other words, what they are presenting with is not what is really wrong with them
The only note of caution I would sound is over Skene’s decision to limit face-to-face contact to “one problem” per appointment.
Patients often don’t know what their problem is and ramble on until a skilled GP spots something potentially serious. In other words, what they are presenting with is not what is really wrong with them.
Doctors are trained to do this so the new rule appears to go against the ethos of GP practice.
You can’t restrict patients to one problem per person – just like loo roll or hand sanitiser when Covid panic buying broke out.
David Knight is the long-serving former deputy editor of The Press & Journal
