[The following is an article published in BMA News, January 14, 2012, by Flora Tristan. It is no longer accessible online, so I am making it available here.]
We’ve been expecting this.
It’s Monday morning, I’m on call, and we are — as usual — a touch light on doctors. One colleague is consulting in addition to me, and a locum is booked to come in at 11am, though it’s not clear yet whether he will do any visits or scripts. At 8.50am a call for an immediate visit comes through, and it is all I can do not to say ‘I told you so’.
I establish that Alfie’s dyspnoea is not such as to justify a blue-light ambulance but is too serious to wait till later in the morning. My colleague assures me that she can deal with her surgery, probably the bulk of my surgery, phone calls, enquiries, immediate scripts, immediate collapses in the waiting room and immediate everything else, and I head out into the freezing sleet.
It takes me 40 minutes to get to Alfie. Partly, this is because I have to negotiate a road junction that is so notorious that it has frequently been a topic for debate in Parliament. But the main reason is because Alfie lives absolutely miles outside the practice area, and has done so for years. I pass five surgeries on my way, including the excellent practice opposite Alfie’s house.
When I get there, Alfie is in extremis with an exacerbation of COPD, and his daughter, Jane, who has learning difficulties and asthma, is crying.
‘He didn’t want to call you — said it was too far for you to come, doctor,’ she says. I wait with Alfie, and encourage him to use his oxygen while the ambulance comes. Then I get on to social services to arrange Jane’s care for the next few days. By the time I get back to the practice there are two complaints pending, 14 people are still to be seen, and my normally serene colleague is close to tears.
This morning was always going to happen. This is why I have been pushing and pushing in meetings for us to encourage Alfie and Jane to register locally. Not only has a single visit seriously impaired the care we can offer to other patients this morning, never mind causing substantial stress; Alfie’s care has also been affected by the distance he lives from the surgery, since he has been reluctant to call when he should have done so.
Today I am really not interested in the sentimental view of one colleague that Alfie should stay on our list as he has been with us for so long and he is frail. That is exactly why he would be better off with the practice across the road from his home. Nor am I inclined to ‘be flexible’, as the health authority suggests; it is only worried about the local press. We have practice boundaries for a reason, and this morning is it.
Flora Tristan is an inner-city GP
One GP's Protest 