As the Autumn approaches

Happy 7th September! It's dark when my alarm wakes me each morning.

Where did the summer go? Why so much rain in August? Will we have a summer spell later this month?

We have survived a total of 24 weeks since lockdown and some British practices have been back to work for 13 weeks or more.

All of the April/May uncertainties about “when do we go back?” were replaced during June, July and August by “how do we go back?” and the main question that is now beginning to emerge is “how do we keep this up - and for how long will we have to?”

It was very significant to see the school run return to our urban landscape last week and my local village of Hale in Cheshire was a traffic jam of V8 SUVs and second-youth sports cars as the parents re-adjusted to the routine and were clearly determined to get their loved ones to bus stops on time.

The trend I'm spotting right now is teams and patients who are becoming fatigued by the relentless media coverage of the pandemic (who would have thought that Brexit could have made a welcome comeback this week - just for a change?) and by the confusion that reigns around quarantine rules and lockdown geography.

Quite frankly, here in Trafford, it's hard to keep up with the rules - one minute we are marching up the hill to lockdown release, the next minute we are marching back down into lockdown. I've lost track of how many households create a bubble around here.

I suspect a lot of people have decided to just wear face masks in shops and that will do. It will be interesting to see how that manifests itself in overall case numbers - God forbid we see such a second wave that practices close down again - keep your fingers crossed and your PPE on.

Last week I had a week with no client calls as I worked ON my business.

This morning I'm at the receiving end of many weekly trackers - updates from my clients as to what's going on. I'm looking forward to reading them and getting my finger back on their pulse.

That will be after my morning run on a very damp Autumnal Monday morning. I don't know about you but I like the Autumn.

Have a good week.