An in-depth analysis of the ‘Rediscover the Joy of Holistic General Practice’ initiative concluded that it was a success and met all its original objectives.
But missing from the 332-page report into the evaluation was input from general practices.
Now, the Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative project manager who carried out the evaluation is collating evidence from practices to produce what will surely be a useful addition to the main report.
David Priest is currently contacting practices to ascertain their experience of using members of the rural support team of GPs recruited under the ‘Joy’ initiative.
He explained: “When I worked on the evaluation last year I intended to contact practices to get their take on the ‘Joy’. However, the Covid-19 pandemic was keeping everyone extremely busy at the time so I decided to leave that aspect of the evaluation until later.”
The SRMC believes that the information David gathers will help it get a more detailed picture of GP recruitment and retention, particularly in Scotland’s remote and rural areas.
The collaborative’s interim programme manager, Ian Blair, said: “We know from David’s evaluation that GPs recruited to the scheme have found great merit in the rotational work model and have felt that the ‘Joy’ experience was refreshing and positive for them. However, it’s important that we complete the picture by finding out what practices think of the ‘Joy’.”
Speaking mainly to practice managers, David wants to know if they have heard of the ‘Joy’ scheme and, if they have used it, what were the key benefits and challenges of doing so? Were they satisfied with the professionalism and performance of ‘Joy’ GPs? Were they happy with the service provided by the HR Hub that administers the scheme? Are they worried about longer-term recruitment to substantive GP posts? Has Covid-19 changed anything in relation to GP recruitment?
David hopes to get round a varied cross-section of general practices, and says the feedback he’s had so far has shown just how different practices are from each other.
He said: “We know there’s often a big difference between a very remote practice and one in a small rural town. Some practices are run by their health board and some aren’t. Some have their own dispensaries and some don’t. Some are comfortable with using regular locum GPs on a long-term basis and some aren’t.
“At the end of the day I suspect I’ll have a body of work that reflects the fact that practices vary enormously – and that their experience of GP recruitment and retention does too.”
He added: “I’m extremely grateful for all the feedback I have had and look forward to speaking to more practices as I try to get a more rounded picture of how ‘Rediscover the Joy’ has been working and perhaps how it can be developed in the future.”
David hopes to produce a report on his findings by the end of June. It will then be appended to the ‘Joy’ evaluation report, which can be found here.