Thread by @EdTurnham

GPs about to hit a perfect storm:
⬆️Covid-induced demand
⬆️demand from 2ry care delays
💉nurse/HCA clinic time lost to vaccinations

GPs urgently need specific guidance empowering us to suspend a large proportion of routine work.

THREAD to explain why this is needed ⬇️

https://twitter.com/DrSimonHodes/status/1344552701733052417

@FSRH_UK has probably been the best at giving pragmatic guidance for GPs, e.g.
- leave in a contraceptive implant for a 4th year
- leave in a mirena for a 6th year
- reduced requirement for BP monitoring for contraceptive pill

But in most clinical areas such guidance is lacking.

@rcgp's Workload prioritisation advice is of some use but:
- outdated (e.g. advice to delay smears is not in keeping with @NHSEngland advice)
- lacking detail

rcgp.org.uk/-/media/Files/…

Here's the sort of statements I would like to see:

"Monitoring of well-controlled hypothyroid patients can be stretched to x months"

"T2DM review can be stretched to x months if HbA1c < y & not on these drugs:"

"Blood tests for statins can be suspended indefinitely"

Clear national guidance would be superior to policies devised by individual practices/PCNs because:
1. GPs will have better medicolegal cover if something goes wrong, e.g. patient gets AF because TSH wasn't checked
2. Patients more likely to accept delays if national policy
...

3. National policies would give organizations such as @Ardens_Health & @PrimaryCareIT the medicolegal cover they need to develop digital tools to help practices implement the policies (e.g. automatically identifying patients whose monitoring can be delayed)
...

4. For each practice/PCN to develop its own workload prioritisation policy would be hugely inefficient. This stuff takes time to do safely.