IS THERE ANY POINT RINGING YOUR GP ANY MORE?

As number waiting more than a week to see a doctor DOUBLES...

THE deepening crisis in the family doctor service was laid bare by ‘frightening’ new figures last night.

A major poll revealed that the country’s GPs are struggling to cope with an ageing population, a recruitment crisis and immigration levels.

One in four people are being forced to wait a week or more to see their GP, the NHS’s 2018 GP patient survey of more than 760,000 patients in England found.

shockingly, the proportion of those who have to wait at least seven days to see a GP has nearly doubled in just six years. at the same time, only a third of people say they can get an appointment on the day they call up.

Only half of patients get to see their preferred doctor, despite experts saying that seeing the same GP is vital for continuity of care.

Last year, theresa May ordered GPs to extend their opening hours and offer appointments from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week, in a bid to improve access. However, the latest figures suggest that securing an appointment is getting harder than ever.

Patients’ groups said the findings exposed the ‘ appalling’ state of GP services.

Joyce robins, of Patient Concern, said: ‘You used to be able to get an appointment the same day with a doctor you knew, but now you’re lucky to be able to see anyone at all.

‘it’s frightening for elderly people, for sick people, that you can’t get an appointment.

‘if you’re lucky you might get to speak to

‘It’s frightening for elderly people’

someone a few days later. It shows the appalling state of GP services and I can’t imagine how it will get better.

‘We’ve lost that many of our doctors – we’ve trained them here and paid for it here and then they’ve gone abroad for a better deal, which I think is dreadful.’

While patients were generally happy with the standard of care they received, the survey revealed the difficulties that millions of people have in accessing care on a daily basis. The proportion of patients waiting more than a week to see a GP has risen from 12.8 per cent (about one in eight) in 2012 to 23.8 per cent – almost one in four – this year.

The number of patients finding it ‘not very easy’ or ‘not at all easy’ to get through to their GP surgery by phone has increased from 19 per cent to almost 30 per cent in the same time.

Worryingly, the number of patients who gave up altogether and did not see or speak to anyone after struggling to get an appointment has nearly doubled from 15 to 28 per cent in just a year.

Those able to get an appointment on the same day is at just 32.8 per cent, compared with 36.3 per cent in 2012.

GP leaders estimate that every day a million patients see a doctor – meaning hundreds of thousands are struggling to see a doctor when sick.

Even when they got appointments, more than a fifth of patients faced waits of up to half an hour after their scheduled time. And only 50 per cent said they were able to see their preferred GP now, compared to 65 per cent six years ago.

The NHS report, which included 16 to 17-year- olds for the first time, showed waits to see GPs were having a knock-on effect on emergency care.

The number of patients turning up at A&E because they could not get an appointment has more than doubled in 12 months, from 5 to 11 per cent. Yesterday’s official report warned against making direct comparisons with previous surveys because the latest research has been changed to reflect recent developments, such as online appointments. It showed 9.3 percent of appointments are now carried out on the phone, while 86.7 per cent of people saw a GP in person. The survey also found that confidence and trust in GPs and healthcare professionals remains high at 95.6 per cent.

The problems with accessing GP care have been fuelled by rising numbers of family doctors retiring in their 50s or quitting to work abroad, as locums or in the private sector. A combination of heavy workloads and GPs choosing to move abroad or take early retirement has resulted in one in seven posts being empty, with vacancy rates trebling in six years.

Earlier this year, Ian Cumming, head of the NHS’s staffing body, admitted 40 per cent of GPs were quitting after just five years in the role. John Kell, head of policy at the Patients’ Association, said: ‘Figures of this sort are no longer at all surprising, but they’re not acceptable – these problems are the result of policy decisions that could and should have been made differently.’

Dr Nikita Kanani, acting director of primary care for NHS England, said: ‘This survey shows patients appreciate the fantastic job GPs and the wider primary care workforce are doing in times of real pressure.

‘We are already putting record funding into primary care after years of underinvestment, with an additional £2.4 billion every year by 2020 to help drive improvements in care, including widening access with more GPs in training than ever before.’

THERE are many reasons why one in four people now have to wait a week or more to see their GP. Huge pressures created by mass migration. Botched contracts that allowed doctors to opt out of working nights and weekends. The fact we don’t train enough GPs and that 40 per cent quit after five years.

But none of these can justify patients having to trudge to overcrowded hospital A&E departments whenever they are unwell. The family surgery is the absolute bedrock of the NHS. If that fails, the whole service fails.