The Dunstan Partnership will NOT tolerate ANY patient who is aggressive or abusive to any of our staff, either in reception or on the telephone.
Patients who behave in an abusive or aggressive manner will be formally warned initially and removed from the Practice List following any repeat of such behaviour.
We have 10,400 patients on our practice list. PATIENT DEMAND HAS INCREASED MASSIVELY RECENTLY. For some unknown reason, we are experiencing an increase in patients who are expecting to be seen on the same day, as an “emergency” for even the most minor ailments. We are receiving between 400 – 900 telephone calls per day – this is why you may be queuing longer to get through and why we are trying to encourage patients to use online consultation forms to communicate with us wherever possible. This relieves the telephone queue for those patients who are unable to use online consultation forms.
During the month of August 2021:
- 688 of our patients were seen FACE TO FACE by a GP or Advanced Nurse Practitioner.
- 3123 of our patients were consulted by telephone only, some of which would have then been deemed to need a Face to Face Appointment and would be included in the Face to Face figures above.
- 719 home visits were carried out.
- 814 patients were consulted by the Practice Nurses and / or the Healthcare Assistants for chronic disease reviews, child immunisations, screening tests and blood tests. Most of the above were face to face appointments by their very nature.
- 3183 repeat prescriptions were processed and signed by the Doctors.
- 217 patients were referred to hospital / community service following their consultation with the GPs.
- As well as consulting with patients, the GPs each have to read and action between 50 and 100 blood test results per day and between 40 and 80 letters per day, which are received electronically from the hospital regarding patients who have attended or been admitted to hospital.
The practice is and always has been open throughout the Pandemic and we are seeing patients who clinically need to be seen face to face. Patients do not always need to be seen face to face and we are unable to return to this mode of working with demand as high as it currently is, together with the risks of COVID.
Patient face to face appointments need to be organised safely, which is why the Doctors triage every request for an appointment. You may see that the waiting room is not full of patients – what you don’t see is the Doctors, extremely busy in their consulting room, on the telephone from 7.00 am to 8.00 pm or later, either triaging patients or consulting by telephone, where it is clinically appropriate.
We have other ways in which we can help support our patients to get the type of care that they actually need and this may not always be from a Doctor. It could be that patients are directed to our Musculoskeletal Practitioner, our Mental Health Practitioner, our Social Prescribing Link Worker, our in-house Pharmacy Team or your local Pharmacist.
We are working extremely hard. Change is not easy but we are having to change the way in which we work to cope with the increased demand and also to provide our patients and staff with a safe environment.
WE CANNOT SUSTAIN AND WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THE ONSLAUGHT OF UNJUST AND AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR THAT WE HAVE EXPERIENCED IN THE PRACTICE RECENTLY, AND WE HOPE THAT, GOING FORWARD, WE CAN ENCOURAGE A MUTUALLY RESPECTFUL WAY OF WORKING TOGETHER WITH OUR PATIENTS.
WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU, BUT PLEASE USE OUR GP PRACTICE APPROPRIATELY AND RESPECTFULLY.
