Some great news this week – NHS England are set to achieve ‘quick wins’ to support general practice and patients this winter! If I wasn’t so delighted about this, I would question why they haven’t implemented these quick wins before. But I am delighted, so I won’t.
Presumably in an attempt to raise the excitement levels even more, NHS England have held off giving any details. Which gives us a chance for speculation. So, what with it being silly season, I will allow myself a flight of fantasy and have a guess about what these quick wins could be:
Sort out pensions: Call me crazy, but it is a belief of mine that incentivising people to stay in work by removing the mechanism that means they are losing money by continuing to work leads to more people staying in work. This is the definition of a quick win, so presumably this is what NHS England have in the pipeline.
Launch campaign aimed at media and patients to say GPs are very busy and seeing people: We know the damage done by NHS England’s campaign of telling patients that GPs were lazy, and it would certainly be a quick win to tell patients that GPs are not, in fact, lazy but are facing unprecedented workloads that patients should take into account when they are booking appointments. This is the quickest of all wins.
Tell the Home Office not to deport trained GPs: During a massive GP recruitment crisis, it makes sense to not deport fully qualified GPs. Quick? Tick. Win? Also tick.
Increase practice funding: Inflation is at Weimar Republic levels, the Government has instructed practices to give a 4.5% pay rise to staff and NHS England are insisting that they won’t raise practice funding. Reversing this decision would be quick, and it would also be a win.
Add actual useful healthcare professionals to the additional roles reimbursement scheme: PCNs might benefit from staff that they actually need, rather than those that NHS England says they need. By offering networks and practices this flexibility quickly, it will make for a winning formula.
So there we are. I’m excited to see how many quick wins we will get! I’d be ecstatic with five, thrilled with four and happy with three. I guess we will have to wait and see!
Wait, what’s that – NHS England have provided more details? A ‘rapid recruitment’ of up to 2,000 additional social prescribing link workers, health coaches and care coordinators.
Well, at least it was quick, I guess…
Jaimie Kaffash is editor of Pulse. Follow him on Twitter @jkaffash or email him at editor@pulsetoday.co.uk
You’ll have to sign-up to the “quick win” raffle and read SOP 327a with your documented outcomes of what YOU will change after your fake win, against their new quickie standards. Sign on the dotted line. Be quick and submit before Friday Jan 20th after their Xmas break and NHSE Zoom meeting bullet point party. Never too late for an innovative, patient centered scheme with you placed at the periphery in Zod land. Thank you for your feedback, actually that’s the solution, all we want is more live feedback on YOU.
Tah dah.
I’d rather come 2nd thanks or 3rd. 60% is good enough in a free already quickie system of neediness, funnelling, and scapegoating.
Tired of winning.