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The essence of medicine

24th March 2016 by NASGP

The essence of medicine

I recently worked back in the UK for 6 months on a ‘reverse sabbatical’ from Australia. A few things had changed since I left in 2013 which made me quite anxious, and added a few challenges to my locuming job.

The most notable change on locuming back in the UK was that far more happens electronically now in the NHS, such as ordering scans, bloods or printing forms. I didn’t have a clue how to do things and the secretaries got a lot of tasks from me. QoF had a few changes too which I struggled to get my head around. But to be honest, I always found keeping up with QoF difficult!

Another stark difference from Australian medicine was doing home visits again. On the whole, I actually quite enjoy home visits as a locum. I am glad I’m not a partner though who has to screen the requests because some were definitely requested for the patient’s convenience, rather than clinical need. Routine visits are not offered in Australia and usually have a charge attached to them. So relatives or friends usually bring people to the surgery for routine appointments. This seems to happen less in the UK because everyone knows the doctor will visit on request.

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