Rain-soaked queue that lays GP crisis bare
SHIVERING in the rain for more than an hour, patients line up in the desperate hope of seeing their doctor.
The scene outside a GP surgery in Northamptonshire paints a bleak picture of our overstretched health service.
Patients at Queensway Medical Centre, Wellingborough, say they have to start forming a queue for at least an hour before the surgery opens to stand any chance of getting a same-day appointment. Joanne Buckland, 60, who took the photograph last week, said: ‘I live opposite and I see people queuing every day. It’s ridiculous, they expect us to wait outside in all weathers.
‘People start coming around 6.45am and wait till 8.00am to get in, and then wait again before seeing the receptionist.’
She said patients have complained they are unable to get through to anyone on
THE QUEUE THAT SHAMES BRITAIN From the Mail, December 23, 2014
reception when phoning up to try and book appointments.
The surgery, which is open weekdays from 8.30am to 6.30pm, is just one example of the thousands of oversubscribed GP surgeries across the country. Paul Crofts, from the Queensway Medical Centre’s patients group, told the BBC there was ‘no simple quick fix’ to the problem. He said: ‘GPs and nurses are caring people and they don’t want to see people queuing.’
The Daily Mail revealed the scale of the crisis in 2014 when it showed more than 30 patients lining up from 6.30am to see their doctor. Since then, the number of GPs per 100,000 patients has fallen from nearly 65 to 60 last year, according to the Nuffield Trust.