Article damaging to Gp-patient relations
I have tried not to rise to the relentless Gp-bashing in the right-wing media over recent months.
But when our local paper joins the party and publishes an article written by a medical negligence law firm complaining about the local primary care provision, I am not able to ignore it.
The half-page article (Chronicle, September 30) about the medical negligence solicitor’s firm Boyes Turner, describes some research that has apparently been done suggesting that Bath is “one of the hardest places in the country to get a doctor’s appointment”.
It then goes on to say the wait to see a GP in Bath is 10 days, compared to a one week national average. It does not quote the source of this research, which is poor journalism. Have they conducted their own? Is this national research?
And moreover, what is the point of the article? Are they suggesting that a 10 day wait to see a GP is unacceptable? Undesirable? Are they suggesting that a wait of this length is negligent in itself?
No-one would argue that in an ideal world, access to a GP would be same-day, without any wait at all.
But of course, this simply isn’t possible in the current climate, due to decades of chronic and systematic underfunding of the NHS, and primary care in particular, resulting in a net loss of GPS at a time of unprecedented demand (NHS Digital “Appointments in General Practice” 29th April 2021).
Primary care was at breaking point even before the Covid-19 pandemic.
There are currently 1,904 fewer fully qualified full-time equivalent GPS in 2021 than there were in 2015, despite the promises made by Government (BMA “Pressures in general practice” 15th September 2021 ).
This underfunding is the direct result of conscious decisions made by successive elected governments that are allowing our NHS to fail.
It would be prudent to remind readers that despite this, General Practice in Bath and nationally, has just delivered the largest mass vaccination programme the country has ever seen.
This is alongside continuing to deliver a massively increased number of consultations - both remote and face to face as demanded by NHS England - during a global pandemic.
A 7 or 10 day wait in these circumstances is not unreasonable, and urgent same day consultations are still, and have always been,
available. Publication of an unnecessary and inflammatory article such as this one, can only damage the Gp-patient relationship by giving rise to unreasonable and unrealistic expectations of primary care.
It also further legitimises the increasing and unacceptable levels of abuse and aggression our practice staff, and receptionists especially, are suffering on a daily basis. Dr K Ward
Local GP