A letter of thanks

We are proud to receive this letter of thanks from our Clinical Commissioning Group

Dear Colleague,

The last 18 months during the global COVID-19 pandemic has been a period like no other in our professional careers.We will forever be proud of the way the primary care family has risen to the challenge in Dorset and continues to do so.

Primary care in Dorset has shown itself to be the agile, patient-focused, and caring foundation of the NHS it has always been. There for patients, and there for the many diverse local communities we serve.

Some sections of the national media are trying to paint a spurious image to the public of primary care and general practice being somehow ‘closed’ or ‘not pulling our weight’. This is a very bitter pill to swallow when it is plain wrong.

The truth is that you and your teams in Dorset are continuing going above and beyond, every day.

Just look at the facts:

• Throughout the pandemic, face-to-face appointments have continued in Dorset, with nearly three million taking place in the last twelve months – twice as many as virtual appointments during the same period;
• In addition, over ¼ million eConsult forms were completed in Dorset along with one and a half million telephone appointments;
• 88% of patients in Dorset describe their overall experience of their GP practice as good - well above the national average;
• 86% are satisfied with the appointment (or appointments) they were offered in Dorset;
• A remarkable 1,179,609 doses of the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine have now been delivered in Dorset since last December, 989,510 of these have been delivered by general practice and community pharmacy teams (as of 10/10/2021).

These facts show that primary care in Dorset is delivering the exceptional; punching above your weight; responding to feedback and being agile; caring every day for those in need, serving your local people, and putting the patient at the heart of everything that you do.

Thank you for your exceptional work.

• Dr Forbes Watson Dorset GP, NHS Dorset CCG Chair
• Jenni Douglas-Todd Chair, Dorset Integrated Care System (ICS)
• Tim Goodson Chief Officer, NHS Dorset CCG

Published: Oct 19, 2021