Independent proprietor Sid Dajani gets frustrated over commissioning, and admires a brilliant apology

Another month and another PPD discrepancy, although only a miserly £220 repayment due to me from February. Normally it’s more than that, but surely it can’t just be me who makes a query and receives a repayment. How much money does the PPD keep from contractors who do not have the necessary audits in place?

I’ve just done my audits for the first quarter of the year, and while we are always proactive about making our patients and the public aware of our 12 commissioned services, the three that really excelled were chlamydia screening, our free condom supply scheme and EHC. For once, these overtook needle exchange! Although we always remind people that a drunken night, bad company or an infatuation can leave the unwary with a souvenir for life, and therefore “please get tested”, I didn’t think the message had got through. Surprisingly it has, but the real mystery is where everyone gets their energy from.

If more people suffered from headaches we may not see such demand, and the NHS reforms are certainly a recipe for a headache – so far costing £3bn. I now have five different agencies paying me and have to attend meetings at Hampshire County Council to express an interest in continuing to provide sexual health services. What an expensive exercise in failure. Why not regularly review those providing the services and either continue commissioning or not. Then bring in new procedures for any new entrants thereafter.

But no, we all have to go through this rigmarole and it has taken loads of time. Judging by my satisfied users, I hope I am OK to continue. But I do worry about a new government, more reforms and more death by headache, or chlamydia, depending on whether I get the services renewed or not.

NHS Health Checks

The real ‘gimmestrength!’ moment came when I had a chance to be commissioned for NHS Health Checks. I already do mini health checks and so graduating to the heady heights of full-blown NHS Checks was an exciting prospect. Like progressing from a hamburger to a Double Whopper Meal with cheese!

A small gesture can go a long way

So I went onto the CPPE website, but found no distance learning courses. Here is the rising star of pharmacy services with nationwide opportunities for it to be commissioned through community pharmacies and ... the CPPE was caught short. What a surprising let-down. So I wrote to them and said I had completed the coursework for the workshop online, but in the absence of an e-assessment or a local workshop I have no evidence of completion. The reply came back: “NHS Health Checks is not one of our e-learning programmes and there are no current workshops other than specially commissioned events.”

Where’s my Whopper?

I was despondent about going back to my hamburger and never having my Double Whopper because someone somewhere lacked foresight and didn’t put the specially commissioned order in. Then I received an email to say that the e-assessment section of the ‘Vascular risk assessment and NHS Checks’ course was back online and I could smell the cheese. I passed with 90 per cent, which was a good thing because the pass mark was a whopping 80 per cent!
I’m hoping for an equivalent pass mark now that the final part of my pharmacy refurbishment has taken place. We had swapped all existing lights for LEDs and when we couldn’t get the usual ‘sparky’, we conjured up another through Google. I knew I recognised him from somewhere and finally plucked up the courage toask.

He said the same thing and when we got talking it materialised that he lived in the village where I had my first ever manager’s role fresh from university, and where I worked from 1994-98.
The following day he came back in and said, “My mother remembers you, too”, and recounted the story of when her GP prescribed a discontinued eardrop preparation which we naturally couldn’t get and he refused to prescribe an alternative. When she went back to see him a week or so later because her symptoms had not improved, he told her: “Well you aren’t going to die of an ear infection are you?” The fact that his mother remembered that story and my support in helping her get treatment nearly 20 years on goes to show how every interaction can count.

Apology masterclass

My mind recently wandered back to English lessons and the master who told me I'd never write anything more significant than a shopping list. But it seems my email writing skills have been underestimated. When I make a mistake or an error in judgement, I make no excuse for being an idiot and work out the damage I’ve done to estimate the appropriate size of slice of humble pie.

I assure those I apologise to that I have learned from my mistake and that my apology is genuine. If I’m being a bit flippant, I make it clear that I’m not stupid and I’m not insensitive, but it’s evident I am supposed to read other people’s minds! But that’s just me and I have an apology for every occasion.

Our specials supplier has taken an apology to new platinum coated levels and I am ashamed to say it has taught me a thing or two. It screwed up an order, which understandably upset our patient. Not only did one of its staff ring her up to apologise, they sent her an M&S voucher and us a box of chocolates for our troubles.

This is a pure masterclass in not only righting a wrong but showing true professionalism and capitalising on a mistake. My staff refuse to use anyone else now. A small gesture can go a long way. And it goes to prove that it’s not always the interaction we have with our patients that counts, but also the interactions others have with us that inspires unforgettable loyalty.