Manager Practice
DIARY
M
ORE random items of questionable relevance from the PM team…
BEYOND THE CALL… Cutting nicely through the seemingly never- ending NHS-bashing headlines are some amazing tales of derring-do by practices caught up in this past winter’s severe weather. A GP in Essex told Pulse how, with no buses running, one of his receptionists spent more than four hours walking to work in deep snow, while a practice manager elsewhere slept in the surgery to ensure services kept going. Another GP drove half way to his locum booking before completing his journey on skis. GPOnline reported that many practices had activated business continuity plans, with some closing early, switching to an emergency-only service or arranging for staff unable to travel to provide triage from home. One GP whose car wouldn’t start walked to the nearest main road and hitched a lift in a passing 4x4 before trudging a mile and a half through the snow on foot. Dedication indeed.
ELBOW GREASE British rock band Elbow have been unveiled as the latest weapon in the ongoing battle to boost the GP workforce. They have given permission for their hit single One Day Like This to be used in Health Education England’s recruitment campaign, entitled One career, endless opportunities. The song forms the soundtrack to a video in which GPs and trainees talk about their experiences of life in general practice, and why they chose the specialty. As the chorus goes: “It’s looking like a beautiful day… One day like this a year would see me right.” A sentiment many hard-working GPs could no doubt relate to.
EQUAL OPPS FLU The term “man flu” is so ubiquitous that it has been included in the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries. Oxford defines it as “a cold or similar minor ailment as experienced by a man who is regarded as exaggerating the severity of the symptoms.” So begins a research paper (published in the BMJ) by the University of Alberta’s Dr Kyle Sue
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exploring whether “men are wimps or just immunologically inferior”. He analysed available evidence to determine whether men really do experience worse symptoms and whether this had any evolutionary basis. His findings suggest that men may actually have weaker immune systems than women and that testosterone may act as an immunosuppressant while oestrogen works in the opposite direction. The rather tongue-in-cheek study was given some credence by RCGP chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard who said that, while flu “is not sexist”, there is some evidence to suggest respiratory tract infections may present more severely in men than women. “Most people, whatever their gender, will recover completely within a few days,” she added.
POWER OF POSITIVITY It’s official – a positive mindset is good for your health. Well, maybe. A British study has found that being in a positive mood on the day of your flu jab can increase its protective effect. It found happy patients developed stronger antibody defences than those who merely feel so- so. Fortunately patients do not have to be in a state of joy at the precise moment the needle is stabbed into their arm – just feeling upbeat that day is sufficient to reap the benefits. For those struggling to raise a smile, Nottingham University researchers said the best method is “a combination of comedy, uplifting music and a list of funny things people say.”
BROWN BEAR BUSTED A Sheffield GP – Dr Catherine Bell – has commented in the BMJ (albeit the Christmas issue) on the questionable practice of a certain ursine cartoon doctor appearing regularly in the popular children’s TV programme Peppa Pig. Having observed questionable prescribing by Dr Brown Bear in three
separate cases involving two piglets and a pony, Dr Bell concludes “exposure to Peppa Pig and its portrayal of general practice raises patient expectation and encourages inappropriate use of primary care services”. The GMC has yet to respond.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD Historical treatments for menstruating women included barber surgeons bleeding them from the ankle to draw the blood down and encourage smooth flow. Chinese medics suggested drinking yellow rice wine to harmonise the blood, while a special tonic laced with cocaine – called Hall’s Coca Wine – was encouraged circa 1916 for “sickness, so common to ladies”. Less appealing was hormone supplement Glanoid, produced from 1867-1930 by a meat- packing business. A more hi-tech solution came in the form of a battery-operated “electropathic belt” aimed at “suffering men and women”. Marketed circa 1893 it was said to be effective for conditions such as nervous exhaustion, neuralgia and “ladies’ ailments”, promising wearers “new life and vigour”. Source: Wellcome Collection.
WHO DARES WINS A PM from Peterborough has recently described
how her five to eight hours a week playing laser tag and fortnightly
table-top war gaming has sharpened her management
skills. Nicola Hewitson of Thorpe Road
Surgery, interviewed in Management in Practice magazine, said: “Communication skills, tactical thinking, and coping well under pressure are all essential to a winning team… A team could have the best individual player, but if that team loses their medic or ammunition carrier, the best player’s skills quickly become redundant because the team begins to run out of lives or ammunition.” Diary assumes she refers here to laser tag and not morning surgeries in the zombie apocalypse.
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