NEWS Manager Practice PM CONFERENCE –


get out and get active, with organised 5km runs held every Saturday morning at over 800 locations across the UK. GP practices are now being encouraged to develop links with their local parkrun and become certified ‘parkrun practices’. One of the first was Danestone Medical Practice in Aberdeen. On page 10 PM Tracey Thom tells how it all got started – and also how parkrun has transformed her own life. Scotland has been looking at


DNAs (did not attends) account for over 15 million general practice appointments each year in England. Out of 307 million sessions scheduled with GPs, nurses, therapists and other practice staff every year, five per cent are missed without sufficient notice according to NHS England. Around 7.2 million of these are with GPs, which adds up to more than 1.2 million GP hours wasted each year – or the equivalent of over 600 GPs working full time for a year. DNAs are an enduring source


of frustration to PMs across the UK and on page 8 of this issue MDDUS risk adviser Kay Louise Grant looks at risks associated with missed appointments and how practices can ensure no vulnerable patients slip through the net. Parkrun is a worldwide


initiative encouraging people to COVER PHOTOGRAPH: NEWSLINE MEDIA


ways to refocus nursing roles in primary care with the introduction non-clinical healthcare support workers (HCSW) to allow nurses in future to focus less on monitoring of care and more on prevention and management. On page 12 Liz Price looks at the plans and potential lessons for primary care across the UK. Our regular employment law


column on page 7 offers advice on dealing with confidentiality breaches by practice staff – intentional or not – and on page 6 we consider a new ‘zero tolerance’ strategy aimed at preventing violence against healthcare workers. You can also check out our


regular Call log (page 4), Case study (page 14) and Diary (page 15).


 Helen Ormiston Editor


BOOK NOW THE MDDUS Practice Managers’ Conference 2019 will be held at the Fairmont Hotel, St Andrews in Scotland on 28 and 29 November. This year’s theme is New Horizons: Navigating safety through


change, which addresses emerging areas of risk as practices welcome an increasingly diverse mix of health professionals, with more tasks being delegated to non-clinical teams. New for 2019, delegates will be able to choose for themselves which masterclass topics are most relevant to their professional needs. The masterclasses will explore a range of medico-legal topics, including investigating patient safety incidents, dealing with challenging patient contacts and raising concerns about safety, health, behaviours and performance – and much more. To find out more and book a place go to Training & CPD > Events at www.mddus.com


NEW STANDARDS FOR


END OF LIFE CARE A NEW set of standards in providing end of life care has been agreed for GP practices. The Royal College of GPs has joined forces with charity Marie


Curie to create the Daffodil Standards, designed to support primary care teams in caring for patients (and their loved ones) living with an advanced serious illness, or at the end of their lives. Practices who adopt the eight standards commit to making


improvements in at least three per year, with the aim of having reviewed all of them within three years. Those practices will also be able to display a “daffodil mark” to show their commitment. The Daffodil Standards are:


• • • •


Professional and competent staff


Early identification of patients and carers Carer support - before and after death Seamless, planned, co-ordinated care


• Assessment of unique needs of the patient • • •


Quality care during the last days of life Care after death


practices being hubs within compassionate communities. A survey carried out to coincide with the launch found that 85


per cent of GPs felt they did not have as much time as they would like to care for patients at the end of life because of workload. Dr Catherine Millington-Sanders, end of life care lead, said:


EDITORS: Scott Obrzud Helen Ormiston


MANAGING EDITOR: Jim Killgore


ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Joanne Curran


DESIGN: Connect Communications www.connectmedia.cc


PRINT: 21 Colour www.21colour.co.uk


CORRESPONDENCE: PM Editor MDDUS Mackintosh House 120 Blythswood Street Glasgow G2 4EA


t: 0333 043 4444 e: PM@mddus.com w: www.mddus.com


“Our colleagues are already working hard to provide this level of care, but pressures on our system and a lack of resources in the community can sometimes make going the extra mile that bit harder, which can be incredibly frustrating for us and our teams. “That’s why the RCGP and Marie Curie have developed these


standards. Most importantly, they are there to ensure that when patients see the ‘daffodil mark’ in our window or on the wall in our waiting rooms, they know we are committed to providing the care and support they need and deserve.”


Practice Manager is published by The Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, Registered in Scotland No 5093 at Mackintosh House, 120 Blythswood Street, Glasgow G2 4EA. The MDDUS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MDDUS are discretionary as set out in the Articles of Association. The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in Practice Manager are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland.


SPRING 2019  ISSUE 20


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