Surgery ‘teams’ could aid GP staffing crisis

PATIENTS should be treated by teams of administrative staff and case managers instead of expecting to routinely see a GP, a think tank has suggested.

The King’s Fund called for new models of working, as it warned that “general practice is in crisis” amid a shortage of 6,000 GPS.

It follows research which shows the average family doctor now works three and a half days a week, with 83 per cent of female GPS and 52 per cent of male GPS working part-time.

A new report by the King’s Fund suggests patients should not expect to keep seeing the same GP.

Beccy Baird, author of the report, said: “We need to look at different models. It could be a ‘microteam’ – where patients are assigned to a team, rather than to one GP, so that there is a nurse care manager, an admin worker and a care assistant doing much of the work.” Easing the amount of work GPS were expected to do might mean they were prepared to take on more of them, she suggested. Figures show that on average GPS are working 3.7 half-day sessions a week – a record low.

The report says: “Funding has not been growing at the same rate as demand, leading to a profession under enormous strain and facing a recruitment and retention crisis.”