One of the causes of increased workload in general practice are the many requests that doctors get for letters from patients or from external organisations. It\u2019s now so common that doctors have coined a term for it: GANFYD \u2013 Get A Note From Your Doctor.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s seems that large sections of society can\u2019t function without these \u201cletters from doctors\u201d. Instead of using common sense or employing their own clinical advisers, external organisations make repeated requests to NHS doctors for letters which are not at all needed.<\/p>\n
Often the worst offenders come from the public sector \u2013 e.g. universities who seem to look upon NHS general practice as a source of free occupational health advice for their students. Universities never \u2013 of course – offer to pay for this advice they get from NHS GPs.<\/p>\n
Instead, university requests will come with a mealy-mouthed statement that any fee is the responsibility of the student. Like doctors are going to impose heavy fees on impoverished students who already have large debts and are who are often living in poverty.<\/p>\n
Local government and schools are other frequent offenders, requesting letters for issues they could easily resolve themselves using some common sense. And perhaps surprisingly, the NHS is also a frequent offender (you would think that NHS Trusts would know better).<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the solution? I have concluded that to address the GANFYD problem, we need to remember the adage \u201cmoney talks while bullshit walks\u201d. But don\u2019t charge patients. Change NHS regulations so the (suitably large fee) is the responsibility of the organisation making the request.<\/p>\n
The NHS is under great pressure and we urgently need to do everything we can to reduce unnecessary work in the NHS so that NHS staff can focus on clinical work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the causes of increased workload in general practice are the many requests that doctors get for letters from patients or from external organisations. It\u2019s now so common that doctors have coined a term for it: GANFYD \u2013 Get A Note From Your Doctor. It\u2019s seems that large sections of society can\u2019t function without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[20750],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-primary-care"],"yoast_head":"\n