Taking Society's Pulse
Nov 08, 2023, 01:11 PM
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Kate Cabot, GP partner at a six partner practice in Acton, West London, discusses how her practice introduced new tools for treating patients:
Interviewer
And we mentioned in passing earlier home visits from your childhood, was that a part of your practise?
Cabot
Yes. And I always used to say I liked home visits because I found it really fascinating going into people's houses and seeing all their wedding photographs, this old lady or, you know. I like the idea of homes. It's when we had a bit more time to do it, I mean. When I first started with Helen Sapper, she used to do chronic visits, which is literally had a list of people, and she would go and see them once a month, even if they weren't calling for her.
So it went from that model to really sorry we can't do because we had to reconfigure the practice once there were two of us. We had to start cutting this thing out that Helen had offered them. And we had to sort of explain that, you know, I'm sorry, that was very nice. But I'm really sorry, you know, but keep the practise going. You know, if you need anything, call us. But we can't just come and see you for a cup of tea.
So it really went from there where you had enough time to wander around to see people to really having to say, look, I'll only come if I think I'm going to gain and you're going to need me to come. You're going to do something useful out of that. And of course, what we found out in the pandemic is we didn't really have to do a lot of those visits, particularly with video links. If someone did actually have a smartphone. In the house. Actually, very few visits are really neede. But it's probably one of those more sort of qualitative sort of holistic things that. Probably help makes the patient feel good in some ways, and actually I always used to think added a lot to my experience, but unfortunately was another thing where time was not allowing us to sort of enjoy visits anymore.
And you got a lot of people who didn't like doing them, they’re time consuming. But, you know, I think it's a shame to lose that because there is something you learned, something about that elderly person. You saw them as a real person. Not just as a very old person with nothing much else, I always used to just still remembering some of the interiors you go into. And you'd never get that really, even if you had the video thing on, you wouldn't quite get that feeling or the. But I think it's unfortunate. It's probably a luxury that the NHS can't afford most of the time.
Interviewer
And we mentioned in passing earlier home visits from your childhood, was that a part of your practise?
Cabot
Yes. And I always used to say I liked home visits because I found it really fascinating going into people's houses and seeing all their wedding photographs, this old lady or, you know. I like the idea of homes. It's when we had a bit more time to do it, I mean. When I first started with Helen Sapper, she used to do chronic visits, which is literally had a list of people, and she would go and see them once a month, even if they weren't calling for her.
So it went from that model to really sorry we can't do because we had to reconfigure the practice once there were two of us. We had to start cutting this thing out that Helen had offered them. And we had to sort of explain that, you know, I'm sorry, that was very nice. But I'm really sorry, you know, but keep the practise going. You know, if you need anything, call us. But we can't just come and see you for a cup of tea.
So it really went from there where you had enough time to wander around to see people to really having to say, look, I'll only come if I think I'm going to gain and you're going to need me to come. You're going to do something useful out of that. And of course, what we found out in the pandemic is we didn't really have to do a lot of those visits, particularly with video links. If someone did actually have a smartphone. In the house. Actually, very few visits are really neede. But it's probably one of those more sort of qualitative sort of holistic things that. Probably help makes the patient feel good in some ways, and actually I always used to think added a lot to my experience, but unfortunately was another thing where time was not allowing us to sort of enjoy visits anymore.
And you got a lot of people who didn't like doing them, they’re time consuming. But, you know, I think it's a shame to lose that because there is something you learned, something about that elderly person. You saw them as a real person. Not just as a very old person with nothing much else, I always used to just still remembering some of the interiors you go into. And you'd never get that really, even if you had the video thing on, you wouldn't quite get that feeling or the. But I think it's unfortunate. It's probably a luxury that the NHS can't afford most of the time.