Tuesday, 14 February 2017
Dear Patients,
With regret the time has come for me to tell you that I am leaving South Oxford Health Centre.
Working part-time as an employee has simply not worked out for my children and I, and I have
come to accept that I cannot be the doctor to you that I want to be.
I joined the Practice in 2009 and it has been an enormous privilege to be part of your lives, to have
supported you through the bad times, and celebrated the good times when your health has
recovered.
I want to thank you all for the help you have given me in the past year since I announced that my
hours and responsibilities were going to reduce, and the very kind expressions that so many of you
have made in supporting my decision; I must ask once more for your understanding.
The Team are moving forwards with finding a new working pattern to adapt to my leaving, which is
likely to be at the end of March and I look forward to you and I supporting them as they make the
changes they need during the transition.
Thank you in advance for any expressions I may receive of support for my decision and appreciation
of what we have been through together – your words will mean more to me than you may know
and I will cherish the memories of the genuine pleasure that it has been looking after you.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Tom Nichols
Reflections on my decision in the context of the NHS
As I leave my role in your community, it is important to me that you understand my decision in the
context of the current “Crisis in General Practice”.
Since becoming a GP in 2007, it has been extremely hard to watch as the pressures we work under
are increased year by year. In addition, I feel that Government has been clever and in subtle ways
has been cutting funding without making it obvious. This has led to huge financial strains in primary
care as well.
Speaking as a GP, I feel I have faced relentless criticism from the Government, who I feel want you
the public to see me as the reason for the failures of what are poorly thought out, under-funded
Government policies. I do not believe the problems stem from incompetent, lazy, overpaid doctors
and nurses but more from under-funding and poor, central management decisions.
It is no co-incidence that I stepped down from working as a Partner last year the day after the
Government inspectors (the CQC) undertook their mandatory inspection. It is ironic that the
preparations to demonstrate that we were providing good care took so much of my time and
energy away from providing you with just that care. The experience literally pushed me over the
edge at a point where I was reflecting on my future as a GP. To add insult to injury, we had to pay
them for the privilege of inspecting us.
You may be interested to know that 2 years ago, I (like many other GPs) had decided that if the
Government pushed through their politically driven plans for mandatory 7 day opening, I would
resign immediately. Further, I think it would unlikely that South Oxford Health Centre could survive
such a change.
Thank you for the words of support you have consistently expressed to me when the headlines
have hit, as they have gone a long way to keeping my morale up and reminded me of what is really
important – looking after you. I want you to know that we need you to defend us, possibly now
more than ever before, and I hope that I can count on you to stand up for the NHS when the time is
right.
Sometimes you have asked me what can be done, to which I always reply that there is still hope for
the NHS and passion in defending it. As well as writing to our local MP to express your concerns,
there are many organisations which are coordinating the defence of the NHS. There are several
organisations on the internet such as Patients 4 NHS, 38 Degrees, and The NHS Support Federation.
Perhaps you could watch some of their documentaries which describe the truths about the crisis in
the NHS in order to understand the challenges we face, or take part in the events or activities they
are putting in place.
I am pleased to say that I have an opportunity to harness my passion for the NHS using my skills and
experience in another post that I hold at the local health authority the Oxfordshire Clinical
Commissioning Group. Working part-time, I will be supporting my colleagues in surgeries by
developing software to provide tools to make doing the job easier, safer and to reduce the
administrative burdens, freeing up more time for clinical care. While I may not be visible, I hope my
software will be working behind the scenes to look after you way into the future!