I WOULD like to thank all your readers who have given me their trust, and taken me into their confidence within the doctor-patient relationship, over the past 12 years.
In 1998 I resigned from a very busy six-partner practice in Weybridge, Surrey (we did our own out of hours and were police surgeons as well!) to join Wharfside Family Practice as the NHS/HMP Dartmoor Lead GP, but unfortunately it soon became clear that I was in no man's land and been shot at by all sides.
I then had a spell of splendid isolation at HMP Dartmoor (as the first and probably last GP-trained full-time MO) until Wharfside, under new management, asked me to do a regular session again. Six months of gender bending as Vicky Evans' maternity leave at Stannary Surgery persuaded them to take me on as a part-time GP, and when the merger to form Tavyside Health Centre was announced I 'have case will travel'ed' between the two sites. Sadly, that will cease at the end of December, and I will finally hang up my stethoscope at the beginning of April 2011, when I have honoured my current locum commitments.
I have worked in the NHS for 38 years and enjoyed most of them, but I neither have the inclination nor the energy now to tilt at the latest windmill an aspiring politician has stuck on the horizon. When deja-vu becomes the norm it's time to move on before I get bitter and twisted!
I believe there will come an era again when continuity of care, rather than rapid access/discharge is the mantra, but sadly not in my professional working lifetime. I have made some good friends, a few enemies, and have the greatest respect for all health care colleagues who continue to provide care in the most difficult of circumstances.
I wish the Phoenix, alias Tavyside Health Centre, well, as it arises from the ashes of Wharfside and Stannary, and hope they will retain the best of both heritages as they reunite under one roof in the spring. It has been a privilege to have worked with all of you.
Dr Patrick Drennan
Tavyside Surgery
Tavistock