Over the last few months Mount Pleasant Health Centre has received unprecedented levels of verbal and physical abuse, complaints and vandalism from both patients and members of the public, as has most of the NHS during this difficult time.
The NHS had a workforce crisis before the Covid-19 Pandemic and the extra pressures of the last year and a half have lead to further staff burn-out, early retirement and existing staff leaving the NHS for other careers.
More recently we have had more and more staff off, not only due to isolation rules, but off with sickness and burnout (let alone Covid/Flu or other ailments). Staff are a finite resource and everyone has done above and beyond what could ever have been asked of them. Putting on clinics and vaccinating tens of thousands of patients, dealing with huge backlog of care from the previous lockdowns and other system pressures, not to mention trying to maintain business as usual, which currently, is physically impossible. Even if we had a blank cheque now, we would struggle to get the staff capacity we need for the critical work that needs to be done.
We thank all our patients and members of the public that have supported with thousands of volunteer hours given, the kind words you give us that mean so much (support us by leaving a google review here) and the gifts that patients bring in - it can all really change the tone of a day after receiving complaint after complaint all day long (which lots of times is blocking the phone lines leading to even more complaints).
Our appointment numbers (both telephone and face to face) are higher then they have ever been, our eConsult numbers are hitting all time highs every week and we are all working as hard as we can, still, to provide our patients with the best care that we can.
We are in crisis, we are trying our best, we are thankful for your patience and for bearing with us.
Please help us by only using GP services when appropriate. There are lots of other options for your care, please see the poster below that outlines some of the common ones or visit the NHS website. The whole of the NHS is in crisis right now and without real government support it is not likely to change so please try to use the correct service and not waste precious NHS resources (demanding to speak to a GP to complain wastes receptions time arguing, trying to get you the right care you need, wastes an appointment that is needed by so many others and only delays your own care even further).
Thank you again to everyone that is supportive and to all our patients for bearing with us. If you need us, please contact us (via eConsult or calling us) and we will do our best to help you.
If you'd like to read and watch the recent ITV coverage of the more recent abuse we've received including stones being thrown at our windows, please click the link below:
https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2021-12-01/tinned-tomatoes-eggs-and-stones-thrown-at-gp-surgery
If you'd like to read the recent BBC article that features a quote from one of our GPs on abuse, please click the link below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-59459583
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