We must deal with GP scandal now

FURTHER to your article in last week’s newspaper which highlighted the very poor performance of the Wokingham GP practices.

Many of your readers may not know that this is not a new issue.

I complained about poor performance two years ago and complained again in 2021 in regard to the local GPs’ vaccinations rates and the GPs effectively going into hiding from their patients.

As many of us now know, GPs are still hiding.

My complaints were addressed to my Conservative Councillor,

John Redwood MP and Wokingham Council itself. All three were not interested and fobbed me off with statements that they had no control over what these practices do and the Practices are the responsibility of Berkshire West CCG.

I could not complain to the GP Practice myself as no access was allowed to their premises and they were not answering the phone.

I withdrew my help from the local Conservative Party last year partly because I got no support from them when I highlighted the GP practices’ very low performance generally and for vaccinations in particular.

I now believe that the very poor local GPs performance in Wokingham may be developing into a real threat to the Wokingham Conservative’s control of the Council, as I’m hearing more and more people blaming the local CP for this situation - allowing thousands of new homes to be built with no corresponding increase in local GP services.

I shall certainly highlight this at the next local election as I really do believe the absence of any action by the CP is developing into a local scandal.

It’s now almost impossible to get a GP appointment at the Woosehill Practice, there is little or no follow up for any of your medical conditions or treatments and there is no continuity in seeing a particular GP for any one condition or treatment.

My wife made over 100 telephone calls to get one appointment about two months ago and I understand that it’s got even worse since then.

Also, our GPs are still refusing to see a patient without a telephone appointment first which is not acceptable when we are told by the government that GPs have been told that they must see a patient if the patient insists on it. There is apparently no public accountability here which I think is a mistake that needs to be rectified ASAP.

GPs are wholly funded from the public purse and provide a vital, public service. Any GPs not delivering on seeing patients should be impacted where it hurts - their pockets - as any appeals to their better nature appear to be not working.

Indeed, I would go further and GPs’ future remuneration would depend wholly upon the number of patients that they actually meet for a Consultation instead of the present system, which does not motivate

GPs to see patients at all as GPs’ pay is determined by the number of patients on the Practices Register. GPs are fully paid whether they actually meet with a patient or not.

Finally, I have absolutely no confidence in Berkshire West

CCG’s response to the request from Wokingham Council to implement an improvement plan, indeed their response as outlined in your article appears to have already dismissed that idea. The CCG’s response was full of clichés like “we are committed”, “we are working closely with” but essentially they really aren’t doing much. Perhaps this is because local GPs are heavily represented on this body?

I really do think that the Council should not bother with the Berkshire West CCG but instead make a formal complaint or request to the national CQC and ask them to audit these low-performing GP Practices with a view to putting them into special measures. Wokingham’s local GP Practices need a wholesale clear out of the people running them and replaced by people who are open to improving their performance and putting patients’ needs first.

This local scandal must be dealt with now as many people are at the end of their tether; many are very dependent upon this vital service which has dramatically declined in the last two years and for which Berkshire West CCG appear to either not care much at all or is not capable of doing anything that will materially improve performance.