As summer ends and we head into autumn, we thought this was a good time to reflect on the last 2 years here at General Practice Cremorne as we have worked in and with our community to navigate the Covid pandemic. We especially wanted to acknowledge and thank our wonderful reception staff on the great job they have done over the last two years. As a GP and one of the founding principals of the practice, Dr Ann Allsop says they have had to “adapt to so many different and rapidly changing protocols and systems whilst coping with wearing PPE”, along with managing the phones and the understandably stressed and often anxious patients (and sometimes doctors!). It’s been a difficult time, but all our staff – receptionists, Glenda our practice manager, nurses and doctors – have risen to the challenge with grace, professionalism and compassion.
And it’s not just our staff we are grateful for. As Ann goes on to say we also want to “thank the patients who have cheered us on and acknowledged GPC with words, cards (and food!)”.
On reflecting on some of the other positive outcomes of the pandemic, Ann has been heartened by the “strengthening of bonds, both within the practice and for the practice as part of the community”. As a GP who is passionate about her profession, she has noticed a real “sense of achievement and strengthening of purpose. We’ve been able to do things that we never thought we could, for example our high volume vaccination clinics, which is totally different to our usual style of practice, plus of course telehealth which has been a win for us and our patients”.
In a perfect world, it would have been wonderful to have been able to scale up our vaccination efforts to accommodate everyone, but unfortunately we were constrained by supply issues and stretching our resources to the limit. We have been heartened though to think about the collective effort by all the vaccine providers in our community – pharmacists, other general practices and the state-run hubs – and are proud to be a contributor to the truly extraordinary vaccination rates in our local area.
Obviously, it’s not over yet and there are probably a few more twists and turns coming our way, but we feel confident we can meet the challenges ahead given what we’ve been through, what we have learned and with the support of each other and our community.
Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash