During the COVID-19 pandemic, general practice speciality trainees and the whole primary care team had to learn how tcnavigate remote and online consultations. Dr Hana Patel will discuss how to anticipate difficult patient conversations duringremote appointments and discuss an approach to achieve the best outcome possible in the second part of this series. Other factors to consider during difficultconsultations The NHS will be coming into its winter season, with the addedpressure of COVID-19 and influenza infections this year, cou-pled with the data from the UK Health Security Agency(UKHSA) showing low levels of flu over the past 2 yearsdue to COVID-19 restrictions and isolation of high-riskgroups causing the population to have a low natural immunityto influenza. At the same time a greater demand for appoint-ments, documentation and workflow issues, a reduction in theprimary care workforce (both clinical and administrative) andchanges in how patients access their GP, have led to systempressures that can make consultations difficult before theybegin. These pressures may lead to patients presenting in anacute setting to try and circumvent these system pressures.They may then be signposted back to their registered GP,adding to their anger and frustration.
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