‘Last chance saloon’ to save NHS GP service
MEDICAL GROUP SAYS 175 MORE DOCTORS ARE NEEDED
A shortage of GPs means about 315,000 people across the city, county and Rutland do not have access to safe medical care, an influential doctors’ organisation has warned.
The figure - the equivalent of approximately one in four people shows the NHS general practice service is in the “last chance saloon” and may be unrecognisable within 10 years.
The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Medical Committee (LLRLMC) said the NHS would need to recruit 175 more doctors to ensure everyone has access to the care they need.
It blamed the “dire state” of the local GP service on “a decade of poor government policies and lack of support for the NHS”.
Dr Grant Ingrams, managing partner at Oakmeadow Surgery, in Glenfield, and executive chairman of LLRLMC, said: “GPs used to be proud of the service general practice provided. Too often GPs are now ashamed that, due to political dogma, we are unable to provide the service our patients need and deserve.”
The group said the area needs 56 GPs for each 100,000 residents to provide a safe and efficient service.
However, its calculations show it is currently served by 41 GPs per 100,000 residents.
Dr Ingrams said: “I am shocked that in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, in effect, one in four people do not have access to a safe GP service.
“I am proud of my general practice colleagues who continue to provide a highquality service to patients despite the impossible task they are given to do.
“GP colleagues continue to go the extra mile providing an increased number of general practice appointments despite fewer and fewer GPs.”
Without change, the report continued, in another 10 years there will no longer be universal healthcare at GP levels in this country.
Dr Ingrams said: “The root cause is not due to GPs, but due to underinvestment and ill-conceived government policies.”
A spokesman for the Department for Health and Social Care told the Mercury the government is working to boost staffing levels in general practice both locally and nationally. The LLRLMC said it will hold a summit next month with local MPs, local authorities and decision-makers in the NHS to discuss their findings and identify possible solutions.
This could be a “last chance saloon for a universal NHS general practice service in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland,” Dr Ingrams said. The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (ICB), responsible for overseeing care in the area, said it acknowledged the concerns of the LLRLMC and is working closely with the committee and local GPs to “develop actions in response to the pressures being experienced”.
A spokeswoman for the ICB added: “In Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, we have already successfully recruited additional clinicians to work alongside GPs as part of the general practice team. “These include clinical pharmacists, physiotherapists, paramedics and advanced nurse practitioners.
I am shocked that, in effect, one in four people do not have access to a safe GP service Dr Ingrams
“These additional clinical roles provide patients with alternatives to seeing a GP, depending on their particular need.
“This will help to free up GP time for other patients with more complex health conditions who need to be seen by a GP.
“We have a process in place for practices to inform us when they are experiencing particular pressures and we will then offer them proactive support, working closely with the practice. We are also developing a longer-term strategy to address the specific areas highlighted by the LMC.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “To make sure patients get the care they need, we are boosting capacity with hundreds more doctors in general practice than last year, record numbers in training and we have almost reached our target of delivering 26,000 additional primary care staff.”
The government says it has recruited 25,262 members of staff nationally since 2019, against the target of 26,000.
It also claims to have increased the number of medical school places in England from 6,000 to 7,500 between 2018 and 2020, and opened five new medical schools across the country.