SOME BACKGROUND TO OUR VIRAL VIDEOS

• We feel our videos speak for themselves, however, some background information might be of interest for those wishing some sort of position statement
• Our videos are not endorsed by or connected to the CCG or any official NHS or government organisation
• Any NHS logos that may be seen within the videos are used only as a visual representation of the NHS organisation as a whole and are not intended to be identified as official NHS branding
• GPs, although widely considered to be public servants, are actually independent contractors to the NHS and therefore, like others, are entitled to relay an honest account of what is happening in the NHS
• Contrary to views expressed elsewhere, no public money has been used to create and host such work; those actually concerned about NHS public monies should perhaps research PFI, management consultants, private providers, APMS, international recruitment agencies, political directorships, NHS111 etc etc
• Ivy Grove Surgery takes its role very seriously and is always aiming to provide high quality and friendly family health care with its hardworking and dedicated team of doctors, nurses, reception and admin staff - accordingly we feel we have a duty to inform patients if we consider there is anything that could put this at risk
• The videos were therefore borne out of this need to make our patients aware about the perilous state of General Practice and the background causes of the current situation
• The facts and figures within our videos are not simply 'our own opinion'. Although some may claim such information to be 'misleading' or 'inaccurate', all data is in fact derived from verifiable sources which are freely available in the public domain to anyone wishing to do their own research
• The issues mentioned are faced not only by Ivy Grove Surgery, the Ripley locality or indeed wider Derbyshire but also by thousands of GP surgeries all over the country , on very much a daily basis
• This is supported by the work of the BMA /GPC who kindly agreed our use of their heatmap images to help inform the national picture
• This is further evidenced by patients and practices nationwide clearly identifying with the video content on social media
• Derbyshire LMC fully supports our work and has previously adapted some of it for publication
• The focus of the videos (which appears to have been lost in the furore) is not only to explain the situation to our patients, but also to offer some real and practical solutions to them in terms of self-help, symptom-checking and self-referral , all of which are in line with current NHS philosophy and future plans to empower patients to self-care
• Our State of General Practice video does play in the waiting room, however it plays within an extremely long loop of other information videos and images of the sort that one would normally expect to see within any GP practice waiting room, thereby taking up only a small proportion of the total running time - multiple visits to the surgery would be required to see it more than once
• We remain a strong and viable practice, however, we are well aware there are a significant number of practices nationwide that are in a precarious state
• If General Practice collapses, then with absolute certainty, the rest of the NHS will quickly follow
• Ultimately, if these videos can help to open up an honest and much-needed debate about General Practice and the politics behind it all, then this would surely be welcome