The Inbox Conundrum

Written by: E Metrodora

One of the issues I hear about from my PM colleagues is the colossal amount of emails we receive. You have to read them all too (well, to an extent) and I don’t know about everywhere else but our CCG have got into the habit of including important bits of information in various bulletins so if you don’t keep your eye out you could miss something important.

I’ve had PMs telling me they are drowning in hundreds of emails – and I get it because we do receive way too many, but I’ve found that by using a simple system that I can manage everything coming into the inbox without much hassle.

If there is one thing you can do every day to make your life easier, it’s to go through your emails and decide what needs to be actioned, what can be delegated, and most importantly what can be deleted.

I use a very simple system. I approach all emails with the same few questions when I do my morning scan through the list:

1) Do I need to read and digest this information? If yes mark it as unread

2) Do I need to action this email? If yes mark it with a flag

3) Can I delegate this task? If yes, send it on and move it out of the inbox and into a file (my system goes one file for the year and an individual file for each month. Everything is organised but it keeps the clutter out of the inbox)

4) Can I deal with it now? If its something small and quick I’ll action it then and there and either file or delete as needed

5) Can I delete it? If so, delete it and forget about it

I can go through hundreds of emails using this system and then I can clearly see what I need to action, what I need to read and even better I’ve got rid of everything that threatens to waste my time at a later date.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed when you see 100 or 200 or 300 emails in the inbox, but if we can take half an hour or even (dare I say it) a full hour first thing and do nothing but go through the emails you’ll have broken the back of what’s there and you can plan your day accordingly. Sitting on an email account with thousands of old emails in the inbox is demoralising and becomes depressing over time. If you allow yourself that space during the day to go through and see what there is to be done, rather than getting bogged down in the woe-is-me of the workload you may find that it isn’t as bad as those 200 odd emails led you to believe.

Also: top tip, if you’ve been away, when you get back from your holiday and have to go through the emails, start with the most recent. If you go back to the start of your holiday, the likelihood is you’ll send out emails for work that has been completed in your absence and all it will result in is you clogging up everyone else’s inbox as well as your own. Look at the most recent and work back, you’ll see what’s been done rather than what needed to be done a week ago. There’s nothing more irritating as a member of staff than your manager sending you things to do that you’ve already completed in their absence, so start at the top and thank them for everything they’ve completed and CC’d you into. Find the original emails in that conversation and guess what? You can delete them! Or you can file them if you’re one of those people who insists on keeping everything forever…as you may have guessed I do not belong to that school of thought.

Don’t be a slave to your inbox…get stuck in and show those emails who’s boss!

Fancy a blog?

Written by: Craig Arnott

Welcome to Dene Healthcare's blog!

Specifically aimed at the interests and issues around the administrative and managerial functions in General Practice.  Our intent is to keep it interesting, relevant, helpful and positive.  Not simply highlighting the many issues but where possible looking to the solutions and workarounds General Practice has already found as well as, share best Practice.

We would love to know if you had any feedback or suggestions as to topics to tackle and/or solutions you’ve found to problems already.  We would also love to hear from anyone with hidden desires to try their hand at becoming a guest blogger (anonymously if you’d prefer)?

If so please e-mail us at info@denehc.co.uk

Many thanks!

Stand With Ukraine

Written by: The Dene Team

Dene Healthcare have been sending medical supplies to Dnipro for the brave people of Ukraine since the Russian invasion on the 24th February 2022.  

If you are able to support Dene in this worthy cause in any way then please get in touch.

Our minds and hearts are with you!

Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust Partnership with Dene Healthcare

Written by: The Dene Team

Known collectively to their customers as the ‘Dene Team’ they set up a sub-group of particularly environmentally conscious staff members called ‘The Green Team’ to measure, justify and reduce their carbon emissions to net zero by 2030!

Dene Healthcare has now reduced its total footprint in measured emissions by 72% and over 90% of their staff are now certified as carbon literate.

While determined to achieve their ambitious target in such a short period without ‘off-setting’ the ‘Green Team’ at Dene chose to partner with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, firstly as they are a proud Yorkshire based Company and secondly to further support what should be a global, combined effort!

To date Dene Healthcare have committed to supporting the planting of over 1750 trees and plan to invest and contribute further in 2024.

Gareth Fox, Operations Manager and lead of Dene’s Green Team, said:

“We are delighted to have been accepted as a partner of the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust!  The work they do is truly inspiring and motivational!  It has become our ambition at Dene Healthcare to try and mimic the dedication and impact they have on our planet!  Climate change is a global emergency and while no one can resolve the issue by themselves we believe establishing and aligning ourselves with organisations such as the YDMT is a positive step towards building improved climate conscious networks for the future!”

We’re delighted that Dene Healthcare has linked up with us to ensure that even more native woodlands and hedgerows can be planted, as well as enabling more people to connect with nature, to care for our woodlands and boost their wellbeing.

The Fuller Stocktake

Written by: Craig Arnott

Last year (November 2021), Amanda Pritchard (NHS CEO) commissioned a ‘national stocktake’ of Primary Care to be led by Dr Claire Fuller (a GP and ICS CEO). 

Essentially the NHS wanted a summary of how ICS’s (Integrated Care Systems – which will be established as statutory bodies July 2022) could best support Primary Care. 

ICS’s will have 3 ‘layers’ of hierarchy, although they are going to ‘supposedly’ work using the methodology of ‘subsidiarity’ – meaning the PCN’s (or neighbourhoods if you prefer) will be recommending how the money should be spend and services should be driven.

The layers (as well as how I choose to make sense of them), top down, are as follows:  

System – The new name for STP’s (Strategic Transformation Partnerships) but this time with statutory power.

Place – The replacement for CCG’s – which have been ‘subsumed’ but I wouldn’t be surprised if CCG’s just changed their names and the staff change their e-mail footers).

Neighbourhoods – PCN’s (Primary Care Networks)

The Fuller report/stocktake was always intended to shape the future structure of how Primary Care works within the new ICS structure but it has become far more significant now, as all 42 ICS leaders have signed, endorsed and committed that they agree with the findings!!!  The fact the NHS commissioned the document also means they have a responsibility to act upon them.

So, what does the report state:

In summary – very little we didn’t know already, using over-elaborate terminology and as many of the latest buzz words as one can ‘pivot’ (a mildly amusing reference if you have read through the document)!

The document isn’t really a ‘stocktake’ as it doesn’t focus or even assess the options available but looks only to develop Primary Care within the predetermined ICS boundaries.  Absolutely fair enough considering the more than likely, dramatic change coming.

The main bullet points are as follows:

The vision for integrating Primary Care consists of 3 essential offers.

      1                    Improving Access

2                     Improving Proactive, personal Care (what matters to me, not what’s the matter with          me!)

3                     Helping people stay well for longer (preventative care)

I would normally begrudge reading a document that doesn’t shed light on anything new, but one thing I really did appreciate was the ‘Annex: Framework for shared action’ (page 34 onwards)

The annex designates the responsibility for actions that need to be taken by NHSE (NHS England), DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) and the ICS’s (Integrated Care Systems)!!! A bold move indeed (I don’t think I can remember another instance where responsibility was actually assigned UPWARDS in a report)! Fair play!

So, the management also have 3 main tasks, these are as follows: 

1                     Workforce

2                     Estates

3                     Data

So, there you have it! A very, very basic summary (A Crummy Guide) of the Fuller Stocktake, you can check out the full document and accompanying letter here: 

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/next-steps-for-integrating-primary-care-fuller-stocktake-report/