Opinion and comment
At Ivy Grove Surgery, we are always striving to provide a high quality and friendly family service. We feel, however, that we have a duty to inform our patients about what is happening in the wider political context of General Practice, as unfortunately, such external constraints do have a significant bearing on what we are able to reasonably achieve within practice.
Disclaimer
All views expressed on this page are the opinion of Ivy Grove Surgery, and are not endorsed by any NHS or government organisation, however all information presented within can be fully corroborated by those inclined to do their own research. In doing so, readers are therefore very welcome to come to their own conclusions about what is currently happening in the NHS and in particular, General Practice
Key links
Documents
Please feel free to read/watch the following links so that you know what is going on not only at this practice but also at thousands of practices all over the country.
LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER
❝A form of this letter, which was written by me, was sent directly to the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, and also to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health. Whilst the contents of the letter are entirely my own opinion, I am aware that my views are shared by many in the profession. With kind permission from my partners, I am reproducing it here in order to inform patients of the government's agenda for the NHS. The tone of language and intentional humour, which has been left intact, should not detract you from what are real and genuine concerns.❞ - Dr M Wong
Videos
Social media resources NEW
Please visit our new Social media page for new posters and waiting room slides
Other videos
SOME BACKGROUND TO OUR VIRAL VIDEOS
- We feel our videos speak for themselves, however, some background information might be of interest for those wishing some sort of position statement
- Our videos are not endorsed by or connected to the CCG or any official NHS or government organisation
- Any NHS logos that may be seen within the videos are used only as a visual representation of the NHS organisation as a whole and are not intended to be identified as official NHS branding
- GPs, although widely considered to be public servants, are actually independent contractors to the NHS and therefore, like others, are entitled to relay an honest account of what is happening in the NHS
- Contrary to views expressed elsewhere, no public money has been used to create and host such work; those actually concerned about NHS public monies should perhaps research PFI, management consultants, private providers, APMS, international recruitment agencies, political directorships, NHS111 etc etc
- Ivy Grove Surgery takes its role very seriously and is always aiming to provide high quality and friendly family health care with its hardworking and dedicated team of doctors, nurses, reception and admin staff - accordingly we feel we have a duty to inform patients if we consider there is anything that could put this at risk
- The videos were therefore borne out of this need to make our patients aware about the perilous state of General Practice and the background causes of the current situation
- The facts and figures within our videos are not simply 'our own opinion'. Although some may claim such information to be 'misleading' or 'inaccurate', all data is in fact derived from verifiable sources which are freely available in the public domain to anyone wishing to do their own research
- The issues mentioned are faced not only by Ivy Grove Surgery, the Ripley locality or indeed wider Derbyshire but also by thousands of GP surgeries all over the country , on very much a daily basis
- This is supported by the work of the BMA /GPC who kindly agreed our use of their heatmap images to help inform the national picture
- This is further evidenced by patients and practices nationwide clearly identifying with the video content on social media
- Derbyshire LMC fully supports our work and has previously adapted some of it for publication
- The focus of the videos (which appears to have been lost in the furore) is not only to explain the situation to our patients, but also to offer some real and practical solutions to them in terms of self-help, symptom-checking and self-referral , all of which are in line with current NHS philosophy and future plans to empower patients to self-care
- Our State of General Practice video does play in the waiting room, however it plays within an extremely long loop of other information videos and images of the sort that one would normally expect to see within any GP practice waiting room, thereby taking up only a small proportion of the total running time - multiple visits to the surgery would be required to see it more than once
- We remain a strong and viable practice, however, we are well aware there are a significant number of practices nationwide that are in a precarious state
- If General Practice collapses, then with absolute certainty, the rest of the NHS will quickly follow
- Ultimately, if these videos can help to open up an honest and much-needed debate about General Practice and the politics behind it all, then this would surely be welcome
Postscript
If you remain concerned about the future of the NHS, and especially General Practice, widely considered to be the cornerstone of the NHS, you can write to your local MP or to the Health Secretary. As GPs, we have already been repeatedly advised by our leaders to write and make our feelings known, in last ditch attempts to get the message through to policitians and the public. As patients, but also as voters, you may wish to do the same. You can find details of your local MP at They Work For You (link opens in a new window).
If you wish to provide feedback on our documents, please use our contact form.
Rest assured, all the dedicated and professional doctors and staff here at Ivy Grove Surgery will endeavour to continue to provide high quality and friendly family health care to all our patients within the constraints as outlined above.
GP earnings
For some unknown reason, but most likely aimed at fueling continued hatred and vitriol towards GPs in tomorrow's chip wrappers, NHS England (aka government) requires GPs, who are actually self-employed independent contractors to the NHS, to declare their income.
Despite the stated intention of 'promoting transparency in public sector pay', this thoroughly contemptible and spiteful piece of contractual regulation:
- does NOT apply to any other worker in the NHS
- has absolutely NOTHING at all to do with good patient care
- and invades the PRIVACY of private individuals
Those vile persons in the hierarchy who have decided upon and/or enacted such disgusting arrangements should be profoundly ashamed of themselves, but that would actually require a conscience and a set of moral principles, all of which are sadly lacking.
However, Ivy Grove Surgery complies with this utterly ridiculous contractual requirement by publishing GP earnings on its website, but seriously, if you really are that interested in such vile and offensive nonsense, you're going to have to look for it.
© Dr Michael Wong 2022