Professor praises ‘The Joy’
The Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative welcomes a ringing public endorsement of what’s now commonly known as The Joy initiative.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, was recently in the Northern Isles on a fact-finding trip during which she took part in a training day for GPs and their teams in Orkney.
While there, she was interviewed by Radio Orkney and told listeners that she thought the project formally called ‘Rediscover the Joy of Holistic General Practice’ was “an exciting innovation”. “It just makes my heart sing,” she said of The Joy. “It’s inspiring, invigorating and uplifting”.
Professor Stokes-Lampard said she welcomed an initiative that encouraged GPs to spend part of their career practising in a remote and rural area. In the course of her radio interview, on ‘Around Orkney’ on 16th September (around 6:00 in), she said Orkney was fortunate that it did not have any GP vacancies at present but warned: “We mustn’t be complacent about that.”
She said GPs would in time retire or for some reason reduce their work commitment, and so it was necessary now to think and plan ahead.
“We need to prepare for the challenge of recruiting new family doctors in the future,” she stressed.
The professor added that she found it useful to talk to GPs on her visit to the islands as it would help her to make a clear case in both Holyrood and Westminster for the healthcare needs of remote and rural communities.
