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Medics have taken the unprecedented step of writing to Health Secretary Sajid Javid laying bare the scale of a crisis that is putting patient safety in peril. They say the situation is grave, but will only get worse unless immediate action is taken to address life-threatening concerns.
On Sunday 3,569 GPs, retired doctors and GPs in training had signed the letter, published exclusively in the Express on Monday.
Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, warned: “General practice is the cornerstone of the NHS. It helps more patients than the rest of the NHS put together. So, when GPs and their patients say that general practice is in crisis, we should all be concerned. It’s clear we are already struggling, and without action things are likely to get worse.”
Patients are already struggling to secure routine appointments because of a GP staffing emergency. Analysis suggests four in 10 are set to quit in five years.
Millions were unable to see a doctor face-to-face during the height Covid, while demand has increased in terms of volume and complexity.
GPs have long complained of daily obstacles preventing them offering timely care and support, including lack of resources and reliable IT systems. The stresses of not being properly equipped to help the sick and vulnerable has seen many suffer with their own mental ill health and an alarming number of newly-qualified doctors are leaving the profession as a result.
The Government has promised to deliver 6,000 more GPs, but the RCGP said it needs to act now as the row over the true number of doctors in work escalates.
In 2015, then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt promised 5,000 more GPs by 2020. The target was not met.
Excluding trainees there are now around 27,647 full-time family doctors – 132 fewer than when the promise was made. The RCGP said since 2015 numbers of trained, full-time equivalent GPs have fallen by 1,516. The British Medical Association claims the true figure is much higher with 1,622 fewer fully qualified GPs since September 2015,
An average doctor will care for around 2,000 patients, each of whom visits the surgery about five times a year – meaning they plough through 10,000 appointments. In some parts of the country there are just six GPs looking after 14,000 patients, while others are seeing more than 60 a day.
One despairing family GP told how the NHS was failing the most needy, saying: “I had two patients in tears this week because we cannot refer into hospital clinics because they’ve closed due to being overwhelmed. Patients with severe symptoms that are stuck and I can’t offer them anything else
“The only thing I could suggest was for both of them to go private. The current rate to see a consultant privately in London is between £300-400. This is for an initial assessment and no investigations. Both of these patients are in their seventies. It sickens me.”
Some surgeries have deliberately disabled online patient access because they cannot cope with the volume of demand. In many cases where patients are able to book appointments it is rarely with the same doctor.
The coalition of current and former doctors call for bold action, including a new recruitment and retention strategy to go beyond the target of hiring 6,000 more GPs.
Other demands include an NHS-wide campaign to free up time by slashing unnecessary bureaucracy, investment in IT upgrades and a £1 billion programme of works to fix crumbing surgery buildings.
An increasing number of patients unable to secure routine GP appointments go private to beat lengthy waiting lists.
Latest figures suggest 1.6 million patients have used a paid-for GP amid the lowest levels of satisfaction with NHS family doctors. Meanwhile, almost half of GPs have said they would consider private work for an online service.
One GP told the Daily Express: “Effectively we already have a two-tier health system where many of my colleagues will tell a patient that if they can afford it to go private they should. People are being pushed further and further into paying to access healthcare in order not to wait so long.”
According to figures released by the Department of Health and Social Care there were 4,600 more doctors and 11,100 more nurses working in the NHS than the previous year.
The Government said £520 million had been invested to improve access and expand GP capacity as attempts are made to create 50 million more appointments a year to clear the Covid backlog.
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