Staff should be praised for care

I write as a patient of Sidley Medical Practice. In the Bexhill Observer of Friday, August 4 you had the misleading headline “Health watchdog criticizes a ‘lack of response’ by GP”.

The Care Quality Commission in a follow up visit to their previous visit in 2016 found that there were still ‘system failures’ in the practice, not a ‘lack of response’ by a GP as you imply. This time the CQC did not look at what is most important – how patients are treated and feel about their treatment. If they had I feel sure they would have found as they did last year, that the practice is very good at providing caring services and responding to people’s needs.

Despite a constant shortage of GPs (in line with most of the country), the surgery maintains an ethos that puts people, not systems, first.

The staff are under extra strain and pressure because they care and want to go on caring. They should be praised for this. As an overworked GP or other member of the team, how would you feel if you are always working hard to catch up with the new and constant demands made on you, and you read a headline and article like that?

The bland response from the chairman of the Clinical Commissioning Group did nothing to help either.

If we don’t all keep up pressure on our MP and Government, the kind of caring practice given by Sidley Medical Practice, against the odds, will become a thing of the past.