It is not a priority!

Written by: S.Apone

I’d like to take a moment to consider the phrase it’s not a priority.

Being a practice with more than one site, it can be difficult to manage teams who are split geographically, and it can be even more of a challenge as a PM. You’re the go-to person when something goes wrong, the one who can solve the problems, and the one who doesn’t flap, right?

The truth is that this isn’t always the case. We as PMs are as capable as the next person of getting into a strop about our workload and sometimes, when for the fourth time that day you’re met with a question about a dodgy printer, you might snap and grumble something about not getting a moments peace, but we must, as the leaders of our teams take a step back at times and consider the consequences of our words.

Recently, a supervisor at one of our sites was telling me that she had been upset by the response of a senior manager when she, the supervisor, required some assistance.

To give a bit of background, the supervisor was trying to organise transport of covid vaccines and the accompanying stock to one of our sites. She had called the surgery holding the vaccine and asked if she could drive over and collect the jabs ready for a clinic the following morning. The only thing she asked of the manager was whether the stock was ready to collect. The manager, who was undoubtedly busy had snapped back that it wasn’t a priority, and the supervisor was, to my mind at least, understandably put out by this reply. No matter how busy the manager was, it was not a kind reply. The supervisor had spent the day working her socks off cancelling clinics for a GP off sick, covered on reception for someone on annual leave and had come in the previous evening well after hours because of a problem with the alarm, and now she was being told that something that is actually pretty important was not a priority.

If those at the top can’t see why this is a problem, then I would ask you to consider what I believe to be the single most important piece of advice I have ever been given as a manager. Imagine at all times that your staff are wearing signs around their necks, each of which read ‘make me feel important’. I guarantee that if you employ this tactic at work, you will have a happier team, who are never made to feel small or insignificant.

The NHS are losing staff in their thousands, and we need to be mindful of the way we treat our people if we want to keep them. The phrase its not a priority does nothing more than make a member of staff feel like their stress is unimportant to you as their manager. It is not impossible for a comment like this to become the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, the final blow that makes an employee consider their options and decide whether or not they want to continue to work for you.

It's a lonely place at the top, made lonelier if you can’t retain a good team of people around you. You are much less likely to achieve this if you do not guard your words closely. Think about the impact that words barked in frustration can have on the people who are on the ground. Receptionists in particular who are the backbone of our industry should always be spoken to with kindness and gratitude. I’m not saying that you cannot reprimand your team when things go wrong, because for us all a part of management is monitoring performance, but we can do this with kindness as well.

I do not believe that people do a bad job on purpose; I believe that in general, if you train people correctly and give them the tools, they need to perform their roles then they will do their work without much interference. I also believe that if you are good to your team, they will do even more. They will go above and beyond because they know that their work isn’t going unnoticed. It’s a simple message, but one that we should all try and remember. Be kind to your team, because you have no idea what anyone is going through, and it may be that your harsh reprimand or comment becomes the thing that finally tips them over the edge. It may be that comment that causes them to take less pride in their work, or even start the hunt for a new job and new managers who will treat them better.

The supervisor I referred to earlier is a work horse, and whilst I will not name her here, I would like to dedicate this blog to her. It’s a good job that when she was called at 9pm on a Friday night by the cleaners who were struggling to set the alarm she didn’t respond with it’s not a priority otherwise the senior manager would have found herself having to drive for an hour to sort it out

The wellbeing of our teams should always be our priority because without them, we would be out of the job.

How we can help songbirds this winter

Written by: Georgia Dossis

I’ve grown up to see my mum treat her garden like a small arboretum and get really excited about her little sparrows that come and eat at the fat balls that she puts out, but I didn’t think anything other than it’s a bit of wildlife in the back garden.

Songbirds actually help to keep the balance between plants, herbivores, predators, and prey by dispersing seeds. They also react quickly to changes in in environment and have been proven to act as early warning signs for extreme weather conditions, from tracking their migration patterns.

Scientists are looking at the gaps within their knowledge about the effects of climate change and are finding that more than half of the UK’s songbirds are threatened or already in decline. Their research is ongoing but, in the meantime, there are ways that we can help them, especially during the winter months where their habitat becomes a lot harder for them to survive.

Feeding:

You don’t need a fancy bird feeder to feed birds (unless you want one). Easy and ecofriendly alternatives to this are using either a round clean bin lid or upcycling a plastic bottle into a bird feeder. This can even become a fun activity with the kids or family.

Seeds and fat balls are popular amongst all birds, you can also use leftovers such as fruit cake or mince pies, dried fruit, unsalted nuts, or apples and pears that are past their best.

Placing some seed or a fat ball under bushes / around any tree’s you may have for any of the shy birds out there.

Keeping bird feeders out of reach of pets.

If you don’t have a garden that you can do this in, hanging baskets or a bird feeder outside your window can still be a great way to feed birds in your area, it also adds to a lovely view.

Drinking water/ Bathing:

There are again smaller ways that you can provide water for birds without needing a bird bath. For example, a bowl of water, making sure that it’s as full as it can be to ensure that it doesn’t freeze/ it takes longer to freeze, or making sure that the bowl has a dark surface to keep heat in as much as possible.

If you do have a bird bath (the same as with feeders) ensure that they are clean when you can. Refrain from putting any salts/ detergents in as this can be poisonous to birds. But making sure that it is hygienic so that it is free from bacteria as much as possible.

Housing:

Birds often use artificial bird boxes during the summer and spring to rear their young and stay safe. During the winter months birds use these as warm and shelter from bad weathers. If you don’t have a bird box you can always make one as an arts and crafts afternoon, either out of recycled material or unused woods. Also making sure that you don’t add a perch as this can encourage predators.

Don’t rush to cut back on your gardening too. If there’s no bird box, birds will often use hedges, holes in trees or crannies in rocks to build their nests for the winter.

There are so many more ways to help birds during the winter, the above are the most minimal things that you can do to help from home. It’s all about keeping up to date with conservation issues and acting on this where we can to maintain and potentially grow our ecosystem.

Green Terminology

Written by: Craig Arnott

As a business committed to being Net Zero by 2030 (ambitious – maybe, unrealistic? – we’re aware), but we’ll be sharing lots of details on our progress as well as providing useful hints for those joining us on the journey in the months and years ahead.

But right now, 3 years into our process, we thought it would be helpful to take a step back and look at some of the terminology that seems to dominate the Net Zero conversation.

So let’s start with that main term itself…

Net Zero

When businesses, governments and scientists talk about Net Zero, there may not be absolute consensus on what it looks like and how we’ll get there, but there is a general agreement on what it means.

Net Zero is the result of balancing the amount of carbon added to the atmosphere against the amount of carbon removed. It will be achieved by a combination of reducing the number of carbon emissions (less polluting technology, etc.) and increasing the level of carbon removal (by planting more trees, etc.).

When this is done right, the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere will be ‘Net Zero’ (or even better, we might even achieve overall carbon reduction).

Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3

You’ll be hearing a lot more about the three scopes used to measure progress toward Net Zero. They are the mechanism used to measure organisations’ greenhouse gas emissions, and in order to achieve true Net Zero, action must be taken to reduce all three.

Scope 1 emissions are those from sources that are directly owned or controlled by the organisation. The amount of petrol or diesel used by fleet vehicles is a good example of a Scope 1 emission.

Scope 2 emissions take this one step further, covering the indirect emissions caused by a business when, for example, it purchases and uses energy. Using that fleet example again, if an organisation were to use electric vehicles instead of petrol ones, the emissions would be produced in the generation of the electricity used to power them. These are Scope 2 emissions – outside of the direct control of the business but still their responsibility.

Scope 3 emissions are in many ways the most difficult element in achieving Net Zero status. These emissions are neither produced by the business nor the activities or assets they own or control. Instead, they exist elsewhere in the supply chain. Think of – using Dene as an example – the emissions created in the manufacture and transport of the Products we supply.

It can be very difficult to determine, never mind control Scope 3 emissions, but if all businesses take the journey to Net Zero together, one organisation’s Scope 3 emissions will be another’s Scope 1 or 2 and so on.

Carbon Neutral

This is a term that has been around for some time, and at first glance would appear to be the same as Net Zero. Like Net Zero, carbon neutrality aims to strike a balance between emitting carbon into the atmosphere and absorbing carbon from it.

There is a distinction though.

Generally, ‘carbon neutrality’ can be achieved through offsetting. That’s the act of participating in or investing in schemes designed to make equivalent carbon reductions elsewhere. That might involve, for example, investing in tree planting or green energy schemes. In theory that could mean that a business could become carbon neutral without making any reductions to the carbon it produces.

Net Zero places a much greater emphasis on proactive carbon reduction, where the main priority for a business is to reduce its own emissions, using offsetting as a secondary option.

Carbon footprint

You’re probably familiar with this term, but what does it mean? Carbon footprint can be understood as the total amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted through the activity of businesses or individuals. That includes everything from travelling by car or plane to using a kettle or the electricity used in a manufacturing plant.

Buying local produce, reducing plastic use, reducing unnecessary journeys, and even turning down the heating are all examples of the ways that households and businesses can reduce their carbon footprint.

Greenwashing

Greenwashing is essentially the marketing or PR spin that businesses dishonestly place on their products or services to capitalise on the growing interest in sustainability. The claims they make tend to paint the business in a good light even though little to nothing is actually being achieved.

A business may, for example, claim that their product uses ‘recycled materials’, and while this may be true to an extent, those materials may make up a very small percentage of the product itself. Such exaggerated claims can mislead customers into thinking better of the business.

It is important that any claims are backed up by evidence and action. Where this doesn’t exist, customers should be wary of the claims being made.

Decarbonisation

This term is generally used in a wide-reaching way, referring to the process of reducing carbon emissions resulting from human activity. It is a term favoured by businesses and governments to refer to the holistic efforts to reduce or remove global CO2 emissions.

Covid Clinics - A Carnival Atmosphere in an otherwise bleak week!

Written by: M Fletcher

I know my colleagues may not share this sentiment, but I LOVE working weekend Covid and Flu clinics. Have I had a bit too much coffee? Or too little sleep? Have I finally succumbed to the pressure of working in Primary Care in 2022 and cracked? Nope, I really do mean it. Covid Clinics have been a recent highlight at an otherwise bleak moment in time for the NHS.

All I seem to read are negative and worrying articles about GPs only working part time, or how long it takes to see a doctor, or nurse strikes or drug shortages…it’s all a bit doom and gloom and I personally am tired of hearing nothing but GP bashing from patients, the public in general and the media. And that brings me to the subject of weekend Covid/Flu clinics.

Every day with out fail I deal with someone grumbling about the practice – it could be a patient wanting to complain, a staff member feeling overworked and pressured, or a PCN level meeting where, you guessed it, everyone has something to whinge about. It’s a difficult time in GP land right now, and we must find some balance, because if we allow the negativity to penetrate us as managers it will inevitably filter down through the ranks and everyone will be walking around with a face like a slapped backside.

This is why weekend covid clinics are such a positive in my mind. We don’t work a full day, and all we do is vaccinate. Clinicians only jab, they don’t answer any clinical questions or have time to just look at this thing on my back, and patients understand the appointment is just a quick in and out. We open reception but make it very clear that all we are doing on a weekend is running the clinic; no appointment booking, no queries, just vaccinating.

There are patients who I have seen grumbling at the desk on a weekday, who appear happy as Larry on a Saturday morning, they joke and have a giggle with the team and even thank us when they leave.

During the last clinic I laughed until my eyes watered when a patient, having overheard a conversation I was having with a receptionist about Halloween, said goodbye and imitated a zombie as he walked past. It was really, genuinely funny, and the patient (who I would estimate to be in his late 70s) was clearly happy at having made us all chuckle. It was fun – a genuinely fun morning working with a few colleagues and providing a service that, on the whole, our patients really appreciate.

Every single one of them left with a smile and a thank you, and I left work not begrudging the fact that I had lost the majority of my Saturday but feeling as though we had done something worthwhile and positive for our patients.

For reception staff in particular, who take so much flack it is a lovely experience, and they appreciate every positive comment and every word of gratitude.

Last year, during a Saturday covid clinic in early November, we realised that the radio wasn’t working properly. Faced with a choice of a free CD listing the most popular hits by Elgar or several festive albums, we decided to get in the Christmas spirit early, and we watched as patients queuing for their vaccines started dancing along to the tunes. It was like the scene in the Full Monty, for anyone who remembers that fabulous film.

For whatever reason, there is always a sense of fun at these clinics, a feeling that on these days patients leave their grumbles behind, and likewise staff get to come in and concentrate on one job and one job only, the task of protecting our patients and even better, doing it with a smile. We make sure that staff get a proper break mid way through the clinic, we order in bacon butties and I make sure that the one member of staff who is a secret smoker gets to go and pick them up so she can fit in a crafty fag break. We make sure everyone has a brew when they need one, and that we all leave on time allowing everyone to enjoy the rest of their weekend.

We are very good at organising and running flu clinics in general practice, and I used to love standing in the atrium of our surgery watching the snake of people moving through the building when we used to do walk in afternoons. It was a very impressive sight seeing hundreds of people being vaccinated like clockwork, walking in one door, joining a queue, being called for a vaccine and then leaving via the back. Once Covid hit we had to rethink the way that the clinics ran, considering social distancing and the time it would take to talk patients through the questions on pinnacle etc. but we have gotten very good at this too.

Our clinics now run like a military operation. We get everything (with the exception of the vaccine) ready the day before, the morning of the clinic we arrive, dole out the stock, make everyone a brew and once we’re all drawn up and ready to go, the doors open. It is a slick operation that has developed over the last couple of years, and I’m so proud of our team for continuing to give up their weekends to protect our patients. I’m even prouder of what these clinics have become; a fun way for the team to earn a bit of extra money and to receive the positive and grateful feedback from patients that they so deserve.

I hope that it is the same for my colleagues across the country, and that you too feel the positivity radiating from patients who, because of you, will feel protected this winter.

Covid is something we will just have to live with; for us in GP land organising vaccine programmes creates a lot of work and a lot of stress. But for those few hours, where all you can do is vaccinate, it doesn’t feel so bad. In years to come, we will be proud of our contribution, but for now, I’ll settle for dancing to Christmas music with the patients we serve, and occasionally seeing a man nearing 80 years old pretending to be a zombie as he wishes me all the best for the rest of my weekend.

Managing and reducing stress

Written by: Georgia Dossis

Stress serves the purpose of reacting and avoiding danger, which is great but too much can have a negative effect on you. Life is full of major and minor challenges and it’s completely normal to sometimes feel inundated with these issues.

According to Champion Health, one in 14 UK adults feel stressed daily and I guarantee if you ask your neighbour, your work colleague, a friend, or a family how they are, at least one of them will use the word ‘stress’ in their response.

Below are some suggestions on how to relieve and control symptoms when everything is getting a little bit too much:

-          Leave work at work. With the most common cause of stress being work related, I think one of the most important things is to leave work at work. I’m aware that not all job roles have this perk, but where you can you most definitely should leave work at the office. You psychologically associate your surrounding with your feelings. If you’re taking your work home you’re more likely to feel stress in your home and find it more difficult to switch off when you need to.

-          Be active. I can guarantee that this is the first thing you hear when you say that you’re stressed, and it often is the first question too “are you getting any exercise?” but they aren’t wrong. Exercise increases endorphins, which numbs pain receptors, allowing you to feel better and happier. Even if it’s a walk around your estate, getting movement in will reduce your stresses.

-          Take some time for you. Work holidays are given to be used. It would be unhealthy to work every single day of the year, no matter how much someone loves their job. Taking time off to catch up on you is not a bad thing. You can use this to get some of the life admin that you put off during the week done, take a holiday or even take a day to put your feet up.

-          Getting organised. By getting organised, you instantly feel better about the tasks that you need to do. Creating a to do list helps by having everything out of your mind, alongside being able to visually see what you’ve got to do.

-          Breathing and meditating. There are hundreds of apps and thousands of YouTube tutorials that can help with this. By focusing your attention on breathing it clears your mind of all the tangled thoughts. Meditating not only strengthens areas of your brain responsible for learning, attention and memory but also helps calm down your sympathetic nervous system. This improves your heart rate by slowing it down and causes you to feel more relaxed.

-          Activities. Whether it be apple picking, going shopping or using an adult colouring book, doing something you enjoy will allow you to take your mind away from what you’re focussing on that’s causing you stress. Colouring or reading for example help relax the fear centre of your brain which is what cause you to become calm.

-          Keep a journal. Journalling can allow you a safe space to express how you feel without fear of judgement. Here you don’t have to worry about grammar, punctuation, or spelling, just write whatever comes to mind.

-          Healthy Diet. There’s nothing more tempting when your stressed to eat badly, which is normal, and variety is good. But a healthy diet is key to keeping your body regulated and happy. We’ve all heard the term ‘hangry’, eating good healthy foods will help eliminate the ‘angry’ part.

Although stress is unavoidable it is definitely controllable, you just need to find what is right for you. Keeping stress at a manageable level is key to your overall well-being.