Summary
Doctor Laura Mount reveals in a new series in the Guardian how staff sickness, spiralling waiting lists and political pressure have left GPs on the brink.
Content
Mount, 44, has been a GP for 15 years. She is a partner at the Folly Lane medical centre in Warrington, Cheshire, which is also where she grew up and has lived her entire life, apart from her training in Sheffield. In addition to being a GP, Mount is the clinical director of a primary care network, coordinating six GP surgeries across Warrington. On top of this, she runs a vaccine clinic from a community centre in Orford. “It’s all a bit mad,” she says.
Mount has always enjoyed her job, but lately she has felt dissatisfaction creeping in around the edges. It’s partly the patients. “We call them the Amazon Prime generation,” says Mount. “They’re used to ordering something and it comes the next afternoon.” Three or four years ago, Folly Lane would get a patient complaint every three to six months. “We’d get really upset about it,” Mount says, “and spend ages replying to it.” Now, it’s not uncommon to get a complaint every day.
When patients don’t get what they want, they harangue reception staff. The surgery records incoming and outgoing phone calls, and Mount gets emotional when she listens back to them. If a patient is particularly abusive, Mount will send out a zero-tolerance letter,
The other thing grinding Mount down is the recent spate of hostile headlines in the press. warning them that if it happens again, they will have to find a new GP practice.
Mount gives her account of a winter of exceptional demand.
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