We are very aware of the challenges faced by primary care staff at the current time. It is hard to believe that it is only a few months ago that the public were outside on a Thursday night clapping for the NHS. Now we are seeing a significant amount of unreasonable hostility towards general practice staff.
It is fair to suggest that we are seeing a perfect storm; public criticism, aggression on the phone along with unprecedented high demand and two large scale vaccination programs to be delivered all this before the normal winter pressures.
We know that these issues are bigger than our local ability to resolve and that the solutions are complex. However, even in this context we have found that colleagues have found support and benefit from meeting together in a safe and contained space to talk about the impact this has had on them.
The Primary Care Staff Support Forum will give staff the opportunity to explore their feelings around the challenges they are facing and identify coping strategies. It will be online and will be led by Paul Taylor and Annelies Franklin (Staff Support Hub Clinical Lead)
For General Practice administration staff, including receptionists and practice managers