‘Hearts & Minds’ is a series of interviews that looks to provide greater human insight into the daily lives of people working on the frontline of primary care. From their thoughts and feelings to the challenges they face as they continue to help patients every day.

We spoke with GP Partner, Dr. Jason Remedios of Harrow Road Surgery. In our interview, Jason discusses his transition from locum work to a partnership role and how he’s balanced it with the daily responsibilities of being a GP. Along the way, Jason shares how he would improve primary care.

Q: Tell us about yourself and how long you've been in your position?

Dr. Remedios: So, I'm the GP partner here along with my other partner, Dr. K Srikrishnamurphy. I joined about 21 months ago now so I've been here almost two years. Previously, I was locuming and salarying mainly towards north west London and Harrow.

Q: What do you like the most about your job?

Dr. Remedios: It’s very varied. We're very community orientated so we see our patients day in, day out. For chronic conditions, we manage them and see patients get better or we refer and follow up where needed. We help patients in other aspects as well. So, lots of patients need help with housing. I think a lot of people think this is a thing GPs don't do, but we still do it. We have a community matron who's excellent and she helps manage those patients. We visit them and see what they need in the house. We even have a kind of elderly hub, where the really vulnerable ones come in every two weeks and we spend an hour with them. It's very rewarding.

Q: How have you found transitioning from day-to-day work as a GP into a partnership role?

Dr. Remedios: Well, it was a birth by fire. Everything I've done as a GP has been like that. So, as soon as I qualified I was like, oh let me locum. I was a sole GP locuming, even though I didn't realise that would be the case. It's been a baptism by fire, but my other GP partner has been great. He was like, this is what you need to do. It’s running a business and managing staff at the same time.

Q: Would you say that’s the biggest challenge? The balance of business ownership, being a GP and handling all those responsibilities?

Dr. Remedios: Yes. A friend of mine said to me if you continue working the way you are, you're on the way to a divorce and your children not knowing you. So it's trying to maintain that balance.

Q: What else would you like people to know that you think they might not know about your role?

Dr. Remedios: I think a lot of people just think, oh, it's very easy. You just speak to your GP and they'll refer you to someone else. That's not how it is. The aim is to not refer and to take the burden off secondary care if possible, unless you know they need to go. We're not just referral agents. I like to see and speak to the patient and see what's going on.
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“I think the art of being a GP is that yes, you're going to get lots of people calling up, but it's finding the one person that really is in danger, the red flag.”

That's why you're a doctor rather than just a clinician if that makes sense. Once they speak to you, you can deal with all these different things. But they don't know that there's lots of other things going on behind the scenes as well. For example, how we get money to fund the surgery, where we get our supplies from, how we manage all these long-term conditions and looking at all the dates, all the figures. I'm sure other practice managers have told you all this as well. It’s very challenging sometimes.

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being a GP?

Dr. Remedios: You make diagnoses for lots of people, you send them away and they come back and they feel so much better. It’s rewarding knowing that you're making a difference, it's good to see.
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“I see half our patients walking up and down the street every day and they come and shake your hand.”

That’s a new thing for me because before when I was locum and I’d just treat them and you would never see them again.

Q: What improvements do you think could be made to primary care or the system in general?

Dr. Remedios: I think there's a lot of scope to make primary care a hell of a lot better, you know. There's lots of things, lots of avenues. One example is increasing accessibility. Like I was saying before, a lot of people want referrals. I've always had an idea about getting a lot of these services under one roof. You know, you see your GP and rather than waiting six months to see a dermatologist you've got one coming in once a week. But that would take a lot of funding. I think the other big thing that's going around GP land at the moment is how the government is trying to phase GPs out. They want to get physician associates in and all of this kind of stuff. I know it’s a big bugbear for a lot of people.

Q: In terms of your community work, what visible impact have you seen in the area?

Dr. Remedios: We've got a carers association and they come out and speak. That’s giving an empowerment element to patients. We've also got a gym referral system in the area, which I think is awesome because a lot of our patients don't like to exercise. A lot of their problems are based on mental health and mood which makes things worse. If we can get them out and doing things, that's a big positive influence as well.

Want to learn more?

Find out how Half Penny Steps Health Centre exceeded hypertension targets in our case study.

If you would like to be featured in a Primary Care Hearts & Minds interview contact our team on partnerships@suvera.co.uk.

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