Events of the last week have left us asking how can we improve Care Providers relationships with GP’s to help them to understand that we have rules that we have to work to.
I work with one very cavalier lady GP who, in the space of a week:
• Has opened our Client’s ‘dosette’ pill box and swopped two tablets around – explaining to the family that she can because she’s a doctor. That’s fine but very confusing for drug administration going forward…
• Has told us that if the Client has another of her 24-hour sleeps – leave her be, don’t call an ambulance for someone with such advanced Parkinsons – that one day she may just not wake up…. Our client certainly isn’t ready to die, and no advance care plan is in place, so we will ignore that advice.
• Advised that the same lady, who is very unsteady on her feet, has the capacity to make decisions as to whether she gets up at 2am and gets dressed to go to church so, not to worry – she doesn’t need overnight care….. This ‘advice’ obviously puts a huge burden on her family to worry all night about whether she has fallen whilst on her own.
We managed the situation of course, but it’s so difficult for families who are torn between common sense and the firmly instilled belief that if a GP has said it, then that’s how it must be….
Does anybody have any tips on how we as care providers can improve our relationships with GPs to try to avoid such distressing situations for families and how we can make them see we are professionals with long established experience and our opinion has value?
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