notes from RCGP Council 21st Nov 2015

: Whistleblowing policy
I raised concerns that this should be enshrined in college policy and clear to all members.

: ‘Be the best you’ meeting proposal for membership to increase resilience – it sounds like a Martin Lukes column. Resilience comes from strong systems and the best doctors will fail without that.

Continuity of care paper: I raised two issues 1) opportunity costs. Every time some one says ‘GPs should do….’ we should say ‘What have we to stop doing instead…’ We should be a bit more like Baroness Trumpington and challenge misapprehensions. 2) Where has the push for more immediate access come from; sometimes people do need to be seen immediately but at other times they do not and will end up with discontinuity of care at cost to the patient and doctor. Policy which disrupts continuity should be opportunity costing.

: CQC – What makes an outstanding practice – can you really be outstanding when you offer homeopathy and reiki? GPs are leaving because of CQC inspection pressures, it’s a non evidence based screening test, and the unintended consequences have not been properly evaluated – this isn’t acceptable. Opportunity costs are not just money – huge raise in fee – but time and morale. What is quality – do we ever know. Clear what isn’t acceptable – so why not have simple ‘meets requirements’ or ‘needs work’. The CQC should not be in the business of further judgements beyond ‘safe enough’ / ‘not safe enough’ .

:Working with physicians: If more GPs do GPSPI work, less are available to do GP expert generalist work

: GP fatigue, need for regular breaks. Coffee breaks – my ongoing continued campaign for collegiate coffee breaks – good idea to make explicit.

Homeopathy vote: RCGP policy I’d agreed/written with Nigel Mathers on homeopathy was voted in, “Council does not endorse homeopathic products. It does not believe that they should be promoted, prescribed or dispensed.”
Vote was overwhelmingly in favour.

There were a couple of other things that need Trustee board clearance before being publicly disclosed and I will follow as soon as I can.

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