THREE WEEK WAIT TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR
EXCLUSIVE 6,000 GPs needed in new NHS crisis
PATIENTS are waiting up to three weeks to see a doctor because there are too few GPs.
Six thousand more are needed urgently to meet the crisis, health chiefs warned last
night. In some areas there are just six GPs to deal with 14,000 patients. Some doctors are seeing more than 60 patients a day, leaving them burned out, stressed and close to quitting.
The Royal College of General Practitioners, which represents rank-and-file GPs, last night described the system as “close to breaking point”.
Dr Sandeep Kapur, an NHS GP in Anerley, south-east London, said: “General practice is in crisis and there is no doubt the profession is suffering.
“The chronic shortage of doctors means there are probably nearly 188 million potential patient appointments not being met every year.
“We have the fundamentals of a great GP service that was the envy of the world, but it is now on life support.”
The Government has promised 5,000 extra GPs by 2020 but the RCGP says more than 6,000 are needed now.
“There are around 7,000 GP surgeries in England, meaning one is required in almost every practice.
The alarming rate at which family doctors are leaving the profession means patients are not receiving continuity of care.
Britain’s ageing population is compounding the crisis as many older people have complex medical needs.
Meanwhile, many surgeries have too few nurses and ancillary staff, meaning doctors are forced to carry out extra duties, and time is wasted on things such as signing passport application forms. GPs estimate that on any given day at least 10 per cent of consultations are not medically related.
The RCGP last night urged ministers to pass on a significant slice of the extra investment it has promised to primary care.
Chairwoman Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said: “We are seeing more and more GP vacancies across the country, and we’re hearing from our members that it is taking longer to fill them.
“This means patients have to wait longer for appointments because we simply don’t have enough GPs available to meet demand. It means practices need to rely on locum doctors – roles originally designed to fill shortterm vacancies – to cover longerterm workforce shortfalls, at significant expense.
“It means GPs are working ever longer days, and increasingly burning out, and in some cases it means practices have to close, with knock-on effects on neighbouring surgeries.”
She added: “It is clear the system is nearing breaking point.
“It takes a long time to train a GP and in the meantime our existing workforce is being forced out of the profession due to intense and increasing workload pressures.
“If we are to face up to this crisis, we must have a huge cash injection for general practice and for the Government to take our concerns very seriously.”
Many patients have complained about the inflexibility of a system that remains woefully out of step with modern life. Few surgeries open late and even fewer at weekends.
Increasingly long waits to see a doctor have seen some turn to a new generation of health apps providing round-the-clock medical treatment at a time and location that suits them. Smartphone technology means a doctor can attend a home, office or hotel within two hours of a request with a 20-minute consultation costing around £90. Latest recruitment figures, from a survey by Pulse magazine, show 15.3 per cent of GP positions are unfilled, up from just 2.1 per cent in 2011. One doctor