Ups and downs in 2013 - Health care reforms go on

I've just made a start on my new year resolutions. They aren't all fully formed yet, but at least this one has begun.
I've been on my last football tournament, I think. It was in Zagreb and resulted in the usual outcome. But I never really went for the outcome anyway. I went for the journey, and the taking part. In recent years the taking part has become less and less interesting as it seems fewer and fewer have the necessary personality to keep me amused. The other reason, of course, is that I need to spend my holiday times with my grandson, Lucas.
Lucas is here right now, with Emily, spending Christmas in manchester and the New Year in London. As I write she is entertaining her friends downstairs, each with their own one to five year olds. The house will be a mess of course, but then who cares. Yesterday we gathered for the annual meeting of the Benetts. This year in Huddersfield at Woodsome Hall golf club. It's an old stately home converted into a club house. It's good all round and everyone can catch up without being overwhelmed. There are always a few new faces and I'm never sure if they'll be there next year. Christmas itself was the usual joyful occasion with food and drink and merriment, and everyone loved seeing Em and Lucas. Lucas is big boy now and can clearly make himself understood - 'my turn now' and 'more'.

In my work 2013 has been quite remarkable. I am now officially Clinical Director for the commissioning group and also one of the Primary Care Champions for the Greater Manchester health reform programme. Although this involves a wide breadth of change, my involvement is in the GP side of it. This has involved speaking at great meetings, appearing on TV and radio, and incurring the displeasure of many of my colleagues. I have spoken briefly of meeting the Prime Minister. I also spoke at a National congress on 7 day working. I met there and was chatting to the chief executive of the NHS and the Chief Medical Officer. The main issue is to extend GP opening hours to make Primary Care easier for people to access and see their GP, rather than go to the accident department. Many of my colleagues think this is pandering to consumerism. Well it may be, but it is them who pay for the service. Some even accuse me of being 'politically driven'. They have so far failed to explain how that can be, but they seem very exercised by the proposition. The 'anonymous' comments in Pulse magazine reflecting the more extreme of the views put to me and about me. Still, I'm proud that in Central Manchester we're leading the way and are amongst the first to offer appointment up until 8pm during the week and also appointments at weekends.

At a more specialist level, I had a running and public debate with local cardiologists about whether cholesterol was important in preventing heart disease, or whether it is the treatment with statins that is the important factors. Without going into technical detail, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, no less, have come out on my side! I've also recently finished off the new NICE update on post-myocardial infarction management. Since then I've been asked to write several articles for various journals. Loving it.
On a routine basis, I am thoroughly enjoying the new distribution of work time, and the 'new' practice at the Range is proving to be brilliant. It's good to be valued and appreciated. I don't have the burden of practice menagement and can get on with writing and service reform. Many of my old patient still remain faithful, although I'm able to see them less often myself.

My own time outside work is spent thinking about family issues, and planning when I can see Lucas. A major development has been to help Rachel buy a house in Crystal Palace. It's small but it has a garden and it's a start. Jonny is doing great stuff in his teach first course. I gather he's doing particularly well in class control and always gets good reports. What a star.
Lizzie went over to America to be a nanny. When I was last in America a few weeks ago, I went over with Emily to see her. She was staying with a family in Cleveland Ohio. When we got there it turns out she wasn't very happy there. The family were treating her little better than a servant, undermining her, and speaking badly about her to baby sitters and others.

So we brought her home - yeah!

What of the New Year resolution. Well one of them is to start running again. Sure enough earlier today I went for a run. It's not a long run but I nearly died! At least its a start. I hope I can do this at least once a week. We'll see