A Day in the life of a GP at Hughenden Valley/Chequers Drive

At 7:45am I arrive, log onto my computer, run through my email then go to reception to check the Out Of Hours service faxes in case any patients should be contacted for a follow up. I also check the receptionists’ message book. Back at my computer, I highlight diagnoses on 14 electronic letters and save them for entry onto the patient notes. I then pour a coffee and say hello to my colleagues before the doors open at 8:00am.

Between 8:00 and 9:40am I see ten patients. They include a patient with chest pain who needed an ECG; another had seen the cardiologist and required major medication changes, a depressed person whose spouse was failing to acknowledge a difficult drug problem, and a baby with a smelly nappy who came 10 minutes late. This meant I had to refresh my room before the next patient arrived - an occupational hazard!

Then onto our daily clinical meeting, a 20 minutes review where doctors pass on information about patients we are concerned about, or hear from the district nurses about patients requiring our input, and I’m warned that a previously aggressive patient is scheduled to come in later in the morning.

I have a further eight patients booked after 10:00am. They include the potentially aggressive person, who turned out to be very low and thankfully not aggressive. I grab another coffee before seeing the urgent patients, and then quickly check some more of my letters. By the end of morning surgery I have dictated 4 letters, sent 2 referrals for physiotherapy and arranged several blood tests. At the busiest point I was running 26 minutes late.

At noon I take a phone call from the hospice reporting back on one of my patients. I then go through to reception and pick up the phone messages received during morning surgery. I call a few patients back about their queries, which reduces the need for them to make appointments.

Twenty minutes later I am ready to check my patients’ hospital results on the computer. I use these to update medications. At 12:45pm my electronic in-trays are empty and I can collect my ‘real paper’ in-tray from reception. This contains minutes from the practice meeting, several circulars from pharmaceutical companies and various patient letters regarding sick notes and insurance forms for completion.

By 1pm I am ready to go to the dispensary. The ‘query’ clip contains prescription counterfoils where patients have requested ‘expired’ medications (i.e. they were scheduled for review) or medications that don’t appear to be on their repeat list. This takes 10 minutes to sort out, and then I collect around 120 prescriptions for checking and signing.

An urgent call comes through to visit one of our very poorly house-bound patients, and it can’t wait. I get back to the surgery at 2:15, and find a patient has arrived at the surgery though surgery doesn’t start for half an hour- he can’t wait and must be seen now. Then I quickly go through 8 electronic letters that have just come in and organise the rota for our doctors to include changes for annual leave, training, and to reflect our movements between the two sites.

I then sign some letters and prepare for afternoon surgery. I see 18 patients in the afternoon and give a tennis elbow injection to one patient, - just one of the new services we are introducing to save a potential trip into hospital.

At 6pm I check the message book again. There are 4 messages, and one is for a visit, which we schedule for the next day. I dictate a few more letters and pop into dispensary to sign some scripts and take some for updating. I finally finish my working day at 6.30pm.