Tripling of GP complaints ‘likely to be tip of iceberg’
Sharp fall in face-to-face appointments has led to an increase in grievances about general practitioners
COMPLAINTS about GPs have almost tripled in a year, with the “vast majority” of concerns relating to difficulties accessing appointments, the NHS watchdog has said.
Patients’ groups said the figures reflected “a worrying decline” in the service being offered, and growing public concern about problems accessing face-to-face consultations.
They raised fears that the situation was continuing to deteriorate after GPs were told they could stop providing many routine services, and focus on the booster rollout.
The figures from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) show 8,267 patients contacted the inspectorate between January and November last year, to report a poor experience of services run by GPs.
The figure is a near-tripling of the 3,001 reported over the same period a year earlier.
Dennis Reed, from Silver Voices, a campaign group for the elderly, warned that the cases reported to the CQC were likely to represent “the tip of the iceberg” as most people who were unhappy with their care would be unlikely to go to such lengths.
Mr Reed said: “Situations have to be pretty extreme for people to go as far as to complain to the inspectorate.
“For all of these thousands of cases there will be many more people who struggle to get to see their GP, and don’t complain, but don’t get their symptoms seen, or don’t get them seen until it is far more serious.
“These figures reflect a worrying decline in the service, and I worry it will worsen again now that GPs are focusing on boosters, so patients will struggle to get a face-to-face appointment.”
Before the pandemic around 80 per cent of appointments with GPs were face to face.
This dropped to 47 per cent during the first wave of the pandemic, reaching 63 per cent in November, after repeated interventions by ministers.
Rosie Benneyworth, CQC chief inspector of primary medical services, told a recent board meeting: “We are seeing a significant increase in feedback on care for primary medical services.
“The vast majority of this relates to concerns that we’re seeing about access to care in general practice.”
Dr Benneyworth said the regulator intended to follow up concerns, which could mean unannounced inspections, saying GPs needed to be “mindful” of the limitations of remote appointments.
The figures show that the number of patients providing feedback about a good experience rose from 804 to 1,462.
Prof Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “GPs and our teams were working under intense workload and workforce pressures before Covid, but the pandemic has exacerbated this.
“The size of the qualified workforce fell by almost 6 per cent between September 2015 and August 2021, while the number of patients has continued to grow meaning that the ratio of patients to GPs has increased by more than 10 per cent.”
An NHS spokesman said: “The latest GP appointment figures show that general practice is working hard to ensure patients get the care they need, with more than 30 million appointments delivered in October. In response to patient feedback, we have created a £250 million access plan for general practices to improve access for patients and to support GP teams this winter.”