Crowds and developments at the GP Posts
14-04-2022 -by Quirina Koehler and Esther Struijk-Menheere – managers GP out-of-hours clinics
At the moment, it is busy at all De LIMES locations, which is underlined by the production figures. There has been an increase in the number of phone calls and self-care advice. Especially on Saturdays, there is also an increase in the number of consultations, but the pressure is mainly on telephone triage. It is worth mentioning that in the 1stweekend of April we processed 151 emergency calls, of which only 1 was answered late. That’s really nice and super clever in these bizarrely busy circumstances.
A number of causes of the increase in production
The expiry of the COVID-19 measures with a number of consequences:
- Society has a lot of catching up to do and these are often just a little more serious than we are used to
- COVID-19 is not over yet and difficult to separate from the flu
- Parties are organized with the result that alcohol and drug abuse is more prevalent again
- Sports competitions and training sessions will continue with all the consequences that entails
- And in addition, as a society we continue to have a challenge with all the psychosocial problems that take a lot of time on the phone
- In today’s 24-hour society, where people want to be helped at any time of the day and day care is under pressure, more is shifting to ANW hours
- On top of that, there are the extra refugees who come to our country, where we have an extra challenge with a language barrier to provide these patients with the right care.
Thank you for all your flexibility in recent times! It’s great to see that everyone thinks along and jumps in where necessary. We also understand that sometimes the limit has been reached because the services are very busy and have taken their toll over the past 2.5 years.
In order to be able to continue to serve the increasing demand for care, the management has set out a number of actions.
Recruitment and selection
The HR department is busy with the recruitment and selection of triage nurses, triage nurses in training and medical students who can be deployed as junior triage nurses. If you know people, former colleagues, family or friends who might be interested in 1 of the above vacancies, we would like to hear from you. As an employee of De LIMES, you will receive a referral bonus if someone continues to work with us for a longer period of time and ends up with us through you. The vacancy for medical student is still in the making but will be posted online in the coming days and will be posted to Leiden University’s medical study association.
Virtual Collaboration
In recent weeks, it has happened a number of times that it was not always equally busy at the various locations and also that people jumped in for each other. We are very happy that these kinds of initiatives exist. We also know that some employees need to get used to this and/or need some more guidelines to pick it up. These sounds are important to us and we take them seriously. In order to cope with the workload, it has been decided to soon realize a ‘virtual collaboration’ between the triage nurses of all posts of De LIMES. This means that triage nurses will eventually log in to all lines of De LIMES. We understand very well that this requires good agreements, especially since there are still differences in working methods between the posts on many fronts. We are therefore going to work towards this, which starts with a good inventory of what is needed for good ‘virtual’ collaboration across the locations.
Recently, we brainstormed with the ‘Emergency Line Working Group’ about working together at night for the emergency line and what working arrangements would be needed for this, this brainstorm is now being broadened. An inventory will be made of which working arrangements are needed to take further steps in the cooperation between the posts. Ingrid Ludlage will take on a leading role in this from her role as project officer. Together with the working group and with input from you as a triage nurse, she will collect the necessary information and put it on paper. We would prefer to see Ingrid take this up together with a colleague from Voorhout. If you would like to do this inventory together with Ingrid, please register with Quirina Koehler. Based on the inventory made, we can come up with a more concrete and step-by-step plan to achieve the necessary cooperation. Ingrid and the colleague from Voorhout, who is yet to be filled, are collecting input for the necessary working arrangements and preconditions from the various posts. Your input and proposals are therefore very welcome.
Two conditions have already been drawn up:
- Nothing changes for the patient. He just calls the known line.
- For the triage nurse it does not matter at which location she is located, because you can call the other location from any location.
Exchange
In the coming period, a group of 10 employees who have volunteered will be trained at the location where they are not yet known. It’s great that these people have signed up; This also gives flexibility in scheduling and ensures that we get to know each other better and can learn from each other.