The NHS landscape is changing massively and we have, of course, known that for some time now.
The QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention ) agenda means NHS staff, clinicians, patients and the voluntary sector will be involved in changing the way our health care system works in order to “improve the quality of care the NHS delivers while making up to £20billion of efficiency savings by 2014-15, which will be reinvested in frontline care.”
The GP Commissioning Groups will, beginning April 2013, take over a great deal of decision making within the NHS, at a local level. What this means is that GPs are now starting to think and work in more dynamic ways which is great news for us, the public. The implementation of the GP Commissioning Groups will create a more autonomous approach to physical and mental health care in the local areas.
GPs are clinicians on the front line. They are the ones who understand the needs of their patients and what is currently lacking in terms of specialised services that can benefit their NHS patients massively. Rather than being prescribed drugs or being placed on a lengthy waiting list whilst their condition possibly deteriorates, GPs are now thinking more in terms of private and NHS professionals that can provide their patients with the care they need in the immediate future. A massive relief for NHS patients and a reduction in wasted resources means that the NHS will save vast amounts of money and public health will improve.
I commend the GPs at Heald Green Health Surgery (Wright), East Cheshire PCT and Bramhall Park Surgery for their forward thinking and clear desire to do right by their patients. These are practices that truly care about the well being of their local community as is evident from their openness to offer solutions to long standing problems that have affected the NHS.
As a life coach working as a specialist for relationship problems, I do work with NHS clients that have been referred to me by their GP. It is wonderful to note the difference between the first time the NHS patient contacts me over the phone and their composure when they leave their first coaching session. To see first-hand the difference the rapid referral from GP to professional can make on relationship counselling and coaching clients’ lives, is absolutely gratifying and couldn’t happen without the backing of the caring GPs within the local Manchester and Cheshire regions.
