Is this the UK’s best family doctor?

Dr Louise Jordan from Real Peak Practice

IT IS quite a boast to make, but Dr Louise Jordan could be the best family doctor in Britain.

 

If not, she should at least receive some recognition for running one of the best and most progressive rural practices in the country.

Don’t take my word for it: watch the Real Peak Practice set in Derbyshire, a truly revealing documentary.

Jordan, who lost her neurologist husband to a terminal disease several years ago, strongly believes in the notion of a “good death”, and practices what she preaches.

We watch, in two half-hour films, how she presides over a mostly elderly roster of patients with compassion, respect and dedication.

Two older men, one with a neurological condition, and another with lung cancer (who is informed in real-time of his condition), bring the audience as close as it can get in a TV show to the realities of a family doctor dealing with “end-of-life” issues.

It can be an upsetting watch, but it is also informative, showing that final days of life can rise above a patient staring into space in a hospital ward.

Jordan, more than anything, is an advocate for bringing the sufferer and the family along at the same time, and she believes the benefits to a grieving next-of-kin are obvious.

here were two incredibly brave gentlemen who let their stories be told, and they subsequently have died

Dr Louise Jordan

She is a realist, though, and feels the Government should withdraw altogether from running the NHS, as surgeries continue to face the challenges of recruitment, obesity and an ageing population.

Speaking between patients at the Baslow Health Centre in the Peak District, she tells me she was not put off by the “intrusiveness” of filming.

“What we agreed with the BBC was that we would look at the effects of changes in the NHS on rural practices.

We did deliberate for a long time over it but the director kept her promise not to be intrusive and to never, ever intrude on a consultation.

“So everything you see is absolutely as it happens, and no one was made fun of or humiliated. We felt very safe with them [the BBC]. There were boundaries. Everything had to be accurate, and everything in real-time.

“There were two incredibly brave gentlemen who let their stories be told, and they subsequently have died.

"Both of them were actively engaged in sharing their stories, and were really keen. We had some amazing people, but 50 per cent did decline to take part.”

Barry Pearson was 85 last year when he was told the devastating news of his lung cancer by Dr Jordan, as we see in the film: “That was incredibly difficult, and brave of him,” she says. “He didn’t know what I was going to tell him.”

He was incredibly stoic, I suggest.

 

Louise Jordan and other dedicated members of staff at Baslow Health Centre, Derbyshire

He tells the doctor he is going off for a game of snooker with a friend after hearing his fate.

“He was a little monkey, wasn’t he? We did lots of checks and balances, and followed up to make sure he was fine about it. He had lots of opportunities to pull out, but I think he went through this with his wife a year previously, so a lot of dialogue had been opened up.

“His son was a doctor, too, and he was very motivated to let any good to come out of his ad situation be seen, to benefit other people.”

Asked whether she believes in a good death Jordan says: “I do, and I think that [his] was. We can think of death as a failure, but it is part of life and our job is to know that individual, their wants and their fears, to be on that journey with them.

“A good death, more often than not is at home, because it is safer, and we pre-empt any disaster that might happen, too, with emergency drugs in the house. I am very motivated by that. But it is the patients’ choice.”

Jordan’s achievements in the practice are against the background of “huge challenges”, she reveals, some unique to rural areas, some not.

“We’re all under huge pressure at the moment. We obviously have large areas to cover, so I can’t just pop around the corner for two or three visits in half an hour.

“One visit can be an hour at least, through three gates, etc. We don’t have services on the doorstep. We do minor surgery, for example.”

 

he appears to be coping, though: “Well, I think financially we are hugely under threat. At Baslow we have a hugely motivated team, including reception, which keeps the whole thing going.”

Does she believe these strains on general practice are the fault of the Government?

“What is happening is we have more elderly, complex patients and a real problem with recruitment and retention, fewer doctors, and big NHS financial slashes. So a big workload with fewer worker bees. That’s the pressure.”

Jordan hopes the show will change perceptions: “I hope enough people will see us and say, ‘That’s what we want’.

We would love there to be some Government recognition of this, and help in recruiting and retaining.

That won’t get better quickly, because medical students don’t want to go into practice.

A lot of colleagues are also saying, ‘enough is enough’ and taking early retirement.”

She adds, controversially: “I sometimes think it would be better if the Government were removed from the NHS and it was made a proper national health system. Just a thought.”

Given the rewards, why would students not want to do this job?

“Dare I say it,” she says, “we’re not as well paid as the tabloids would suggest. For many, the thought of putting down a second mortgage for premises is too much. My [business] partner and I do a 12-hour day, every day. Students say ‘I wouldn’t want your responsibility for all the tea in China’.”

For the casual observer, I suggest, she looks like the best GP in Britain: “That’s a lovely thing to hear you say, but we’re not unique.”

Is the practice over-subscribed?

“We’re not turning anyone away.”

Finally, does she have a message for the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt? “Watch this film.” 

The Real Peak Practice, BBC2, 7pm on September 10 & 11.