For those of you who thought it was just a movie, Groundhog Day actually exists – and it’s today. Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog in the know, is brought out of hibernation every 2nd February. If he’s spooked by his shadow then winter’s here for a while. If he doesn’t see his shadow, then spring is just around the corner.
Of course, the central tenet of the movie is that the protagonist gets to live Groundhog Day over and over again, a sort of deja vu extreme, allowing him to rectify past mistakes.
Anyone who saw the announcement in HSJ today could be forgiven for thinking that Groundhog Day had extended to the structure of primary care in the NHS. New lines are being drawn as existing PCTs quasi-merge to form so-called PCT clusters. For those of us who have been in the health game for a while, we can’t help but feel that we’ve been here before.
But what does this mean for communications?
At a time when the Government is all for the empowered patient, confusing the issue still further by changing the boundary lines for PCTs adds to the uphill gradient faced by PCT comms folk trying to provide the information patients need to make an informed choice about their treatment. And with comms budgets tight, there is very little slack with which to resource this extra need.
Here’s the HSJ announcement in full – PCT Clusters Announcement
