Nurses and physios could take burden off GPs
KATIE Price arrives at court, where she denied using abusive and threatening behaviour outside a school in a row with her ex-partner Kieran Hayler’s girlfriend Michelle Pentecost.
The ex-glamour model said she was “definitely not guilty” when she appeared at Crawley magistrates, in West Sussex, yesterday.
The alleged offence is said to have been witnessed by two teachers. Katie, of Dial Post, near Horsham, faces trial on June 3. PATIENTS phoning for a GP appointment could soon be seen by a nurse, physio or pharmacist at new “super surgeries”.
The idea is being touted today in a landmark blueprint for the NHS, which warns it will be impossible to recruit enough GPs to keep up with the ageing population.
To cope with demand, newstyle surgeries would also have to bring in mental health nurses, social workers, paramedics, fitness coaches and admin staff.
Author Richard Murray, head of the King’s Fund think-tank, said: “This is taking away some of the patient demand and tasks that are done by GPs. It’s really difficult and this is not the way general practice works at the moment.
“This is a very different model.”
In their Closing the Gap report, The King’s Fund, WARNING Leading GP Prof Nuffield Trust and Helen Stokes-Lampard pounds is estimated cost of recruitment and training to plug gaps predicted shortage of GPs by 2028-29 – up from the current 2,700
Health Foundation think-tanks warn vacancies will rise from 100,000 to as much as 350,000 by 2028-29 without urgent action. Stagnant pay and rising workloads mean the health service is struggling to recruit, train and retain enough GPs and nurses. NHS England is now short of 2,700 GPs but by 2028-29 this is set to rise to 7,600. The Tories will fail to hit their pledge of an extra 5,000 GPs by next year as numbers have actually fallen. The latest plan would cost an extra £900million a year in recruitment and training. Part of the cost would be for 6,000 new physiotherapists, who would expected total of NHS vacancies in 10 years’ time, up from 100,000
help to deal with issues like back problems. Musculoskeletal pain is said to be the reason for one in five GP appointments.
Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, head of the Royal College of GPs, praised the “hard work and dedication” of practice staff. But she said: “They are not GPs and must never be seen as direct substitutes or used to ‘fill the gaps’.”
The report’s authors also warn drastic action is needed to stop nurse shortages doubling to 70,000. Hospital chiefs have said record waits in A&E and for planned treatment cannot be reversed without more staff.
The Department of Health insisted “there are tens of thousands more doctors and nurses on our wards since 2010”.