GPs will ditch checks to focus on booster jabs
MILLIONS of vital health checks for vulnerable and elderly patients will be suspended until April to give GPs more time to deliver booster jabs.
Ministers last night gave in to demands from family doctors to scrap non-urgent work so they can focus on delivering third doses.
This includes suspending routine annual assessments of over-75s, which can detect symptoms of diseases including dementia and cancer.
The move has led to fears patients with conditions such as diabetes or heart failure are once again being sacrificed as the NHS prioritises Covid-19.
It also emerged that the expanded booster rollout will not be up and running until December 13 – two weeks after all over-18s became eligible.
Ministers say the drive is vital to ‘saving Christmas’, but some 14 million adults who became eligible on Monday still cannot book. The rollout will be done in descending age order, meaning most under-40s will not be offered their third dose until the New Year.
So far 19.4million people have received their third dose in the UK. The Government has promised to offer it to another 23 million by the end of January.
Yesterday health chiefs wrote to GPs detailing how they plan to meet the target of hitting 500,000 boosters a day.
The NHS said that, in order to achieve this ‘new national mission’, more surgeries must open vaccination clinics – requiring them to drop other appointments. The letter told them to suspend ‘routine health checks for those 75 and over and for new patients’ until March 31.
These appointments are offered to the elderly to assess their general health and pick up any warning signs of diseases such as dementia, cancer or diabetes.
The guidance issued by NHS England also said family doctors can stop performing minor surgery over winter, as well as other non-urgent work, as long as they deliver boosters.
Minor surgery performed at GP practices can include the removal of cysts, or ingrown toenails.
Ministers also agreed to demands from GP leaders for ‘bureaucratic’ targets to be scrapped until spring. This includes aspects of the Quality Outcomes Framework, under which surgeries are paid to monitor patients with conditions such as asthma, diabetes and heart failure.
Some jobs which are of ‘less clinical value’, such as giving advice on how to stop smoking, will be scrapped until March 31.
The controversial move, approved by Health Secretary Sajid Javid, has sparked fears access to GPs will continue to deteriorate and elderly patients will suffer.
The Daily Mail is campaigning for an increase in face-to-face appointments, which made up 80 per cent of consultations before the pandemic. This fell below 50 per cent during lockdown, causing deadly conditions to go undetected, but has now risen to 64 per cent.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said it was ‘unfortunate’ care for elderly patients will have to be diverted to boosters. She added: ‘In an ideal world every older person would continue to be offered their usual checks this winter, but that’s not where we are.’
The NHS had already agreed to offer GPs extra cash as an incentive to deliver boosters, increasing the rate from £12.58 to £15 per Covid dose. Practices will also be urged to open on weekends, with a bonus rate of £20 for jabs delivered on Sundays. But this week the British Medical Association lobbied the Government to also allow them to drop aspects of their jobs so they could ‘get jabs in arms as quickly as possible’. The Left-wing union, which is currently threatening industrial action over their ‘unsustainable’ workload, welcomed last night’s guidance.
Dr Farah Jameel, BMA GP committee chairman, said: ‘With a finite number of staff and hours in the day, and while GPs and their teams will want to step up and do all they can in the midst of this national emergency, there must be a recognition that they cannot do everything for everyone all of the time.’
Dr Gary Howsam, vice-chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘These are sensible, temporary measures that will address some of the bureaucratic demands on practices and have minimal impact on care patients receive in general practice...’
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the health service would work at ‘breakneck speed’ so all adults could be offered a third jab by the end of January. But in a letter to vaccination centres yesterday, NHS England warned the booking service was not yet ready to accept new cohorts.
It said: ‘Our intention is to go live as soon as possible and no later than December 13.’ The letter said that the jabs would be delivered ‘in descending age groups’. On Monday all over-18s in the UK became eligible for a third dose from three months after their second.
‘It’s unfortunate that care will be diverted’