Conflict Management training for your GP Surgery or Pharmacy team.

The number of violent incidents at UK general practices recorded by police forces has almost doubled in the five years to May 2022 (see this BMJ Report).

The rise in violent incidents and abuse aimed at GPs, Pharmacies and their staff is causing some to leave their jobs. “We have to try to address this because it leads to burnout of our staff, demoralisation, and staff leaving the service altogether,” said Richard Vautrey, a GP in Leeds and former chair of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee.

We are getting increasing aggression and abuse on phones and then also on occasion in person at the practice as well. It absolutely has an effect on our practice and staff.

GP and pharmacy leaders are finding that assaults, harassment, and other forms of abuse aimed at doctors and their staff have worsened in recent years, as services came under increased pressure. A recent survey by the medical defence organisation MDDUS found that three quarters of GPs had faced an increase in verbal abuse or aggression from patients, leading to a big rise in work related stress.

GP and Pharmacy staff are dealing with frustrated and distressed people who have high expectations or complex needs.  There are often opposing views or incompatible needs, driving conflict.

The number of remote and telephone consultations has gone up dramatically, and some patients are finding that difficult to comprehend, which can then feed into the narrative of general practice and services being closed to some people. Plus there are simply fewer GPs doing more and more, so it’s no surprise that some patients are finding it difficult to access the care they need. This never excuses any kind of violence.

The risk is that constant and repeated abuse leaves people unwilling to do the job, and we’re not then able to recruit people to replace them. That makes the problem worse because we’ve got fewer staff to be able to respond to the needs of patients, and their concerns increase, so this becomes a vicious circle.

Conflict is a complex phenomenon characterised by the experience of negative emotional reactions to perceived disagreements between two or more parties. Conflict is widely seen to be inevitable in healthcare settings. Without appropriate and timely management, conflict can result in harmful consequences for healthcare organisations (legal costs, staff costs, increased staff turnover, decreased productivity), for staff (burnout, poor team cohesion, poor well-being) and most importantly for patients (including healthcare errors, poor therapeutic relationships and worse prognosis).

Conflict management training has been shown to be effective in reducing the impact of conflict on hospitals, staff and patients/families. - link to BMJ

You want to stop things early before people become upset, or to deal with them when they are already upset in order to resolve the situation peacefully.  Sometimes, you'll need to realise someone is in crisis and know how to work as a team, with your procedures, to keep everyone safe.

With the help of academic colleagues at Loughborough University, we are continually developing enhanced learning design methodology which ensures that your training budget is spent on best-value activities.   Our training is therefore: