Welcome to Leap Year February!

This morning, during a random Google search, I found that the word ‘patient’ comes from the Latin ‘patiens’ from the verb ‘ patior’ which means ‘to suffer or bear’. So we patients, in this language, are passive, bearing whatever suffering is necessary and, it could be argued, tolerating the interventions of those who look after our health care. Thinking about modern health care, I wondered if this remains an accurate description of how many of us experience the many changes which are occurring at the moment.

Later in the morning, I attended a webinar run by the Patients Association entitled ‘Understanding changes in primary care: your wider general practice team’. It was attended by people from all over England and had presentations by a paramedic, a physiotherapist, mental health practitioner, a social prescriber, and a representative from the patient perspective, who runs a patient helpline.

The prominent issues for me were around thinking of patients holistically – it’s often not just about the sore throat we’ve sought help about but thinking about the wellbeing of the whole person – and just how important that relationship between the practitioner and the patient is to engender trust.

Then, there was the issue of communication. I was left thinking and wondering how many of us truly understand why we’re seeing, for example, a pharmacist when we’re expecting to see a doctor. Do we even know that before we attend the surgery? Are we reassured that they have the expertise and are part of a wider team with all the information they need to offer us the right care? Who supervises them – a GP or their own professional body? One interesting comment was viewing receptionists as ‘care navigators’ rather than the negative ‘gatekeepers’: practitioners in their own right who find the right path forward for a patient. Is this how we view our receptionists in our surgery? Is shared decision making about our health a reality? In short, do our expectations as patients match the service offered today?

So many questions which we, in the FPS committee, know well from the comments we see on Facebook and our website. As a committee we want to be able to represent as wide a range of patients as possible. We want to know what issues are affecting you and, perhaps most importantly, whether there are any ideas about how we can take things forward as a committee.

Let us know – your views are vital.

And if you’d like to watch the webinar yourself, you can find the recording here.