Friday 12 June 2015

My GP has been branded as 'inadequate' and it's wrong, so wrong.#nhsunderattack



My GP in Nottingham, Dr Mark Stevens, has been branded as ‘inadequate’ and it’s not right. It’s more that, it’s viciously wrong.  It has nothing to with his qualities as a GP or the professionalism of his staff. The hidden agenda is obvious. His is a one man practice, it’s not seen cost effective. Try telling his patients they don’t get value for money.  The bean counters want him to enlarge his practice and they’ve been pushing and pushing and pushing.  What makes me so angry is that they can drift in for two days in March, and on little or no concrete evidence label a caring, devoted, doctor as inadequate.

I have read the CQC report
and my first response is anger that Dr Stevens should be maligned by such a shoddy, document. My second is to wonder why anyone would want to be GP when their clinical excellence and compassion is ignored and they and their staff are criticised for being overwhelmed with regulations, directives, and paper work.

We have been patients of Dr Stevens for over twenty years. You don't have to be a medical expert to recognise when you're lucky enough to be registered with a doctor who gives you confidence, inspires trust, is caring and who is willing to put himself out for his patients. None of which is reflected in the report the subtext of which is 'we told you to get a partner and you haven't'.

I don't care if the waste bin in the practice nurse's room has not been emptied. I don't care if someone hasn't remembered to sign a cover sheet to say they've read the latest directive on washing their hands. I don't care that a computer behind the glass was once observed to be at a slight angle so that a patient leaning through might have been able to read what was on the screen. I care that when I need help, it's given. I care that when I need someone to listen to my concerns and explain what's going on, that's what I find.
Read the report and you won’t find one concrete piece of evidence that the service is unsafe (sic), that anyone has come to harm, that any infection has been passed on.  In fact you might be forgiven for thinking that someone went in a brief to find fault wherever and however they could. But that couldn’t possibly be the case.

I hope that should those who dropped into his practice for a couple of days, talked to a handful of patients, and produced a report that does not reflect the experience of those of us lucky enough to be on his register, if they should fall ill and need a doctor find one half as good as Dr Stevens and then they might realise that there is more to practicing medicine than ticking boxes.

A good man has been badly damaged.  Make no mistake the NHS is under attack.