As a medic who has worked both in and out of med centres, I have seen both sides. As a practice manager trying to meet individual and station needs as well as satisfying the needs of PMA sending people out of area with the need to attend regular courses in order to maintain high standards of training and provide qualified and proficient staff. You can imagine the difficulties faced by the average med centre. Personally I saw staffing fall as low as 40%. Maintaining a full out of hours service was a near impossibility.
As a patient whilst not working in a med centre the frustration at not getting that out of hours cover was also initially frustrating and I must admit I did think what the hell is going on, somewhat hypocritical you may say. Well yes the perceptions you have as a provider and a recipient of a service will always be at odds. The fact remains that in most med centres you will be seen quicker than in the NHS, we have well equipped treatment rooms and excellent support from nursing staff (when were you last told to visit the hospital to give blood, this can happen in the NHS). So the service isn't quite what it was, I believe that it is still pretty damn good and can assure all readers that the main priority of all staff from the Senior Medical Officer down to the lowest LAC is still to meet the needs of the patient. And remember it's not only the patient that gets frustrated by all the necessary changes being made, it also frustrates those of us that remember the service we could once provide. Imagine as a last thought that you are at a unit with only two medical officers as the rest are on deployment to the sand box, would you like to see this MO on morning sick parade after they have just completed a busy night duty, this is why we use deputising agencies.
