Hanham Health Letter for Patients about Collective Action

It has been widely covered by the press and local media that GP practices are proposing to take Collective Action.  We are writing to let you know that, in common with most practices nationally, Hanham Health will be taking part and this letter explains why.

Firstly, we want to reassure you that this is not a strike. These are permanent measures that are being taken to ensure general practice is safe.

We are concerned about three main areas:

1. Patient Safety: The numbers of patient consultations we complete in a day means that we are not always practising as safely as we would like
2. Workforce: The huge workload is making it difficult to recruit and retain staff, and levels of burnout are high
3. Funding: We are not being funded sufficiently to recruit more staff for the demand we are facing

Collective Action highlights these problems so we can offer you the best possible care and ensure general practice remains sustainable.

What this means for you

The practice will be fully open, and you can contact us in the usual way via our online service, Anima, by phone or in person.

• All doctors will have a maximum of 25 appointments per day, as this is the safe limit recommended by the British Medical Association.  We will work to ensure that we have enough appointments to see patients that need to be seen urgently but there may be a longer wait for routine appointments.
  If you need urgent care (and we have reached our capacity) we will always assess your symptoms and provide advice which may involve directing you to urgent care centres, minor injury units or a local pharmacy.
• We will return work to other healthcare providers, such as hospitals, where they should have completed that part of care. This includes onward referrals, fit notes, starting prescriptions, further investigations, and responding to patient queries. Your healthcare provider should fully complete your episode of care without asking a GP practice to do any of this work for them. 
• We will not take over prescribing some medications that are started by specialists, unless there is funding for this work.  (Patients already receiving medications under ‘shared care’ arrangements will not be affected.)
• We will not provide monitoring checks for certain conditions, where this should be done by your hospital/specialist team.

Please be assured we are taking every possible step to minimise disruption to your care.

How you can help

• Many minor illnesses can be managed by community pharmacies. This short video explains what the Pharmacy First Service is and what help you can expect to receive. Further information is also available on the NHS website: How pharmacies can help - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
• Consider phoning NHS 111 or use NHS 111 online to find the best place to get help with your symptoms.
• The Integrated Care Board website can also help if you are unsure on what service to use:
  Which NHS service should I use? - NHS BNSSG ICB
• Help yourself stay well by getting a flu and Covid vaccination (if eligible).
  There is also lots of advice on looking after yourself and unwell family members such as young children and treating minor illnesses available on our website Self-Help Centre (hanhamhealthsurgery.nhs.uk)

Please be kind to our staff. They want you to get the care you need and will do everything they can to help.

Looking ahead

We want your practice to remain open and provide the high level of care you deserve. We hope this action will bring meaningful changes, which benefit our patients and the wider healthcare system.

Thank you for your support, patience, and understanding.

The Partners of Hanham Health

Published: Oct 17, 2024