GP Practice visit...

24^th-28^th August 2015

This week marked two months of me being a member of the CCG team. I can honestly say I am really enjoying my time on placement so far and I cannot believe how quickly the time is flying by!

At the beginning of this week I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend a day at Handforth Health Centre to experience what it is like in a GP practice on a day-to-day basis. This was a very worthwhile experience as prior to the visit I had very little knowledge of the running of General Practice. As part of my visit I spent time in the reception area and I witnessed how busy all of the staff are on Monday morning, taking phone calls and also completing administrative duties from the weekend. Each day the surgery has a large number of appointments available that patients are able to book as urgent appointments on the day. As a result the phone lines are inundated with a vast amount of calls on a daily basis, and there has to be the staff at the practice to cope with this demand.     

In addition as part of my visit to the practice I had meetings with both the Practice Manager and Assistant Practice Manager who were able to provide me with a great insight into their varied roles and responsibilities within the practice. They are responsible for everything within the practice from finance to HR. The manager described a GP practice as ‘Its own little business’ which I believe this is a very fitting description, as the practice manager has to take great responsibility for the organisation of the practice so they have to have a very varied skill set. As a result of my visit I gained a vast amount of information relating to General Practice, which has provided me with a great understanding of the day-to-day running of a practice.  

Also this week I’ve been working on a project relating to ambulatory care sensitive conditions and conducting some research into how the CCG can look to integrate care for patients with these conditions within the community setting rather than them being admitted to hospital for treatment. After carrying out lots of research into this area it has become evident that very little locations in the UK have undertaken work in this field, so this is an exciting project for the Caring Together programme as the ECCCG will be one of the first CCG’s in the UK to introduce this scheme.