George Freeman

Prof George Freeman is well known for his work on Continuity of Care in General Practice and for his GP teaching work. In this conversation he talks about some of the unintended and unwelcome consequences that audit culture visits on medical practice, including this rather bizarre example of managerial lunacy.

GF "... Here is a prescription pad...

JL: ... so it is ...

GF: ... if you were to steal that and attempt to forge my signature, you could write prescriptions for this that and the other for patients that might or might not exist, and then you might sell them. Alternatively there’s that [reaches to the paper tray in the
computer printer] it doesn’t even have anything printed on it except for a serial number, and again, apparently it has a market value. Obviously you are supposed to keep these locked – when I’m not here I lock them away. But there are concerns about
the safety, and we have a fifty-one page document now from the PCT about the safety of these things, and it’s really like Securicor! When they are unloading them from the van they’ve got to have a witness, they have to go into a room with grills on the windows, and someone has to witness them being locked up - and it take 51 pages to say that. That’s an example of the bureaucratic effort that’s going into administration these days: it’s disproportionate and it’s happening across the board.


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