Calling for a common language

Dr Laurence Dorman, RCGPNI Chair

The beauty of general practice is our diversity and flexibility. As GPs, we are at the heart of local communities, and this allows us to design our services based on the needs of our patients.

But it’s been a difficult two years as the Covid-19 pandemic forced our colleagues across the UK to operate services differently, virtually overnight. This was necessary to protect patients and our practice staff, but this shift in care was not without its challenges.

In Northern Ireland, it became clear to us that one of the reasons patients and the wider public struggled to understand the change in our GP services is that we were not using a common language to describe our remote offering. Terms such as 'triage' are difficult to understand for patients – and the media – and are often conflated with ‘remote consultations’, despite being different things. Inadvertently 'apologising' for not offering a faceto-face appointment in the first instance, or suggesting these service changes were temporary, has been confusing for patients. One consequence was a dilution in understanding of the challenges in general practice from policymakers and stakeholders.

While respecting the autonomy of GP practices to deliver services in the best interests of their patient populations, we thought it was essential that on first point of contact with their practice, patients are greeted in a way that will allow them to firstly understand, and then value the service they are going to be receiving.

This is why we developed our Common Language paper, which received endorsement from RCGPNI Council and subsequently at national level from UK Council.

This paper was not intended to reopen the debate on the merits of face-to-face versus remote care, or to dictate how colleagues operate their service, but to help foster better understanding of the current remote service model which is likely to be with us, in some form, for many years to come – something my colleagues and I have been making clear in the NI media recently.

Work is ongoing to develop some practical resources for GP practices and we are continuing to engage with patient representatives.

If you are interested in our work to support a common language and better patient understanding in general practice, please get in touch: chairni@rcgp.org.uk •