A MEMBER of staff at the University of Worcester has returned to work full-time in General Practice to support the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Professor Kay Mohanna has been working at the university part-time for the past five years – lecturing, researching and supporting the university’s work to create the Three Counties Medical School.
But, with staffing and resources in desperately short need across the NHS, the GP has decided to return to practice full-time for the foreseeable future.
“I decided to temporarily stand down from the university to work full-time in the practice, simply to support my partners and my team who are working flat out,” Professor Mohanna explained.
Professor Mohanna practises as part of a 17,000-patient partnership working from three surgeries in Staffordshire, including the Darwin Medical Practice in Lichfield.
“We are seven partners and three salaried doctors, supported by two physician associates and three advanced nurse practitioners and two prescribing pharmacists,” she said.
“I am grateful we have a fantastic team and strong friendships, so that is helping.”
Professor Mohanna said she and her fellow GPs and staff had had to change the way they delivered care with increased video and phone consultations.
“The science and the patient experience is evolving fast – we are all just digging deep to keep up,” she said.
“It has also been important to ensure our trainees are fully supported, not working beyond their competence and still have enough support when we are spread rather more thinly than we would like.”
She added: “I really feel for all the students working towards health and medical degrees – this is already a rapidly changing landscape, it’s not the one we trained for and developed our communities of practice within, and it is likely not to be the one they prepared for.
“We need to hold on to that thought when they join us and ensure they have all the support and opportunities for further training that we had as well as the psychological support they need.”
