The sick now resort to drastic measures to get treatment through GPS
SIR – Sarah Gough (Letters, January 23) describes what many see as the major problem with the NHS.
I had symptoms of cancer, so tried to contact my GP. Every time I called, the line was engaged. When I did get through towards the end of each day, all the appointments had gone. This went on for two weeks. Appointments could only be made by phone. Eventually a call to my MP’S office resulted in a call to me from the surgery within a couple of hours, advising of a telephone appointment later that day.
I had to go through the same rigmarole to discover my test results. After a day’s delay the MP’S office again got me a booking; the tests had found an early stage prostate cancer. Since then the NHS has been marvellous – but getting past the gatekeeping system requires much ingenuity.
David Pearson
Haworth, West Yorkshire
platform that is now the only way to get a medical appointment. I’m pretty computer literate but struggled to set up the account, and after 24 hours still had no response from the surgery.
Those without computer skills might wither and die without ever seeing a doctor.
David Whiteside
Rotherham, South Yorkshire
SIR – Your article (“GPS have all the wrong priorities – and it’s slowly killing the NHS”, Comment, January 21), while highlighting important challenges facing the health service, demonstrates a lack of understanding of the environment in which general practice is forced to operate.
As a GP, I’m frustrated that I can’t always see my patients when they need to see me. But is this any surprise when the average funding received by your surgery to care for you all year is less than you likely spend on pet insurance?
This has barely changed in the past two decades. Compared with 20 years ago, we now have millions more patients and hundreds more treatments, and in the past year have offered over 400 million appointments with almost 2,000 fewer full-time GPS compared with 2015.
We are constantly being asked to do more with less, but we are past saturation point. What’s worse, we are now hearing of GPS struggling to find employment due to funding limitations on practices and a lack of flexibility by the Government in permitting the spending of existing ring-fenced funds.
The politicisation of GP targets and incentives, which force practices to jump through administrative hoops to get additional money, exacerbates these challenges. We urgently need a sustainable contract to enable us to build the GP workforce and ensure general practice in England receives a fair and proportionate slice of NHS funding.