Getting to speak to a GP…

Help Help Help (please)

Clunk, repeat, clunk, repeat in a different way, clunk, choose from this list, clunk, my condition’s not there, clunk, the list is confusing, clunk, give up…shout…swear…

OMG Not another blog!

Well, yes, sorree…

I have a mission this time.

Do you know of any examples of General Practice making alternative, easy to use, arrangements for people with dementia, or any cognitive impairment, to get access to a GP?

Last year I tried this with my local practice. I got a meeting with a partner and the practice manager…quite an achievement, I guess.

I ran this past them. The e-referral forms on EMIS (the practice booking and records system, used by a lot of practices) is mind deadeningly repetitive and difficult to use. Perhaps it is ok if you don’t have cognitive impairment, but it certainly drives me bonkers, and many just could not use it.

The phone system? First a long message about if it’s a life threatening emergency, then all our staff are busy, then be nice to our staff, then use the e-referral form…then, oh just wait for 15 minutes, so you’ve forgotten what you wanted to say…

Could the practice develop an easy access system for selected patients with particular difficulties? Perhaps we should simply say patients with a disability.

Oh but most of the feedback we get is positive. People say they like the e-referral form.

I don’t remember being asked!

And they can always use the phone…

Um, no, because after 15 minutes you are told to use the e-referral form, and most patients will have given up the desire to live by then and will not feel able to say they cannot do that.

So, why not find a solution?

Ah, we can’t do something for one group and not for the others.

Oh bloody hell! Ever heard of the Equalities Act? Reasonable adjustment? Disability?

(Which I did not say, because I didn’t think fast enough at the time.)

…

So, moving on, here in Shropshire we are looking for examples of practices which have made a possibly quite simple adjustment to enable easy access for selected patients.

I mean, I think we could come up with solutions on our own, but GPs will like it better if we show that it’s been done elsewhere already, and the world did not end.

EVIDENCE

So people of the dementia world…lend me your ears…please please let me know if you know of any examples.

I already know one, from a friend elsewhere, whose GP allows her to email them because she can’t use the phone any more.

This is what I’m talking about!

Nothing fancy. Just simple.

…

I might add that I am not intrinsically against using e-referral forms. But they must be simple. And some are. But not the emis version.

Clunk, repeat, clunk, repeat in a different way, clunk, choose from this list, clunk, my condition’s not there, clunk, the list is confusing, clunk, give up…shout…swear…

Whoever designed this form should be shot at dawn. It takes no account of reading or cognitive difficulties, and assumes one form fits all. So it tries to do too much, taking you down so many alleyways that you get lost, repeat what you have just written, and then often find it tells you…

‘You need to contact your practice’

…which is a total kick in the teeth after all that palaver.

So come on y’all. Please please spread the word. We need solutions.

You can add your ideas or examples below in the comments, or respond to me directly.

Thank you all for helping.

And this is for any GPs who read this.

Thank you.