BORIS: GPs MU FACE-TO-FACE
Patients are 14% more likely to self-admit, study suggests
BORIS Johnson last night piled pressure on GPs to offer more in-person consultations.
His spokesman said every patient had the right to a face-to-face appointment if they wanted one.
A day after the Mail launched a campaign to improve access to family doctors, Downing Street said: ‘The public rightly may choose to want to see their GP face to face – and GP practices should be making that facility available to their patients.’
Charities and politicians have been clamouring for the Prime Minister to act amid fears that cancers and other serious health conditions are being missed in remote consultations. Just 57 per cent of GP appointments are now in person compared with 80 per cent pre-pandemic.
‘The relationship between the GP and his or her patient really depends on face-to-face consultation,’ said Tory former health secretary Kenneth Clarke. ‘I find it difficult to see how anyone can diagnose totally accurately symptoms over the telephone. I think face-to-face appointments should go back to pre-pandemic levels and I don’t see why they can’t.’
Doctors say telephone and video appointments allow them to get through more patients. But critics believe they are overused and doctors are more likely to miss the signs of serious illness if they don’t see someone in the flesh.
Pressed on the issue yesterday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘The NHS has been clear to every GP practice that they must provide face-to-face appointments, and we fully support that.
‘GPs throughout the pandemic have worked hard to see patients and appointment numbers have returned to pre-pandemic levels. It’s right that the public expect to be able to see their GP in person, if needed.’
The comments come as a new study found patients given telephone GP appointments are more likely to end up going to hospital as emergency cases.
researchers looked at more than 116,000 people who had an appointment with a GP, then became so ill within the next three days that they had to be admitted.
Patients who spoke to a GP over the phone were 14 per cent more likely to do so than those who had a face-to-face appointment.
The study, by Imperial College London, states: ‘GP telephone and video consultations have increased substantially with the Covid-19 pandemic. These forms of consultation need to be fully evaluated to support a safe primary care.’
Although the comments from Downing Street are a positive step, there has been no commitment to take action.
There have been calls to change the way GP practices are funded to incentivise doctors to see patients face to face. The pressure group Silver Voices is campaigning for a statutory duty to be placed on them to hold in-person surgeries if patients want them.
The BMA said: ‘The move to an initial telephone consultation to assess a patient’s needs was, and is, in line with NHS England’s and the Government’s guidance.
‘Many patients have really appreciated the benefit of alternative types of consultations, which can then be followed by a face-to-face appointment if needs be.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The pandemic has been the most significant challenge the NHS has ever faced in its 73-year history.
‘We know that the pandemic is not over, and that Covid-19 and other pressures will continue to impact the NHS for some time.
‘GP practices have remained open and are a key part of the community services dealing with non-Covid medical care throughout the pandemic.
‘Clearly patients who need urgent medical attention should not hesitate to contact their GP practice, phone 111, or contact an urgent care service.
‘There are also a range of routine NHS health services including NHS Inform and community pharmacists to help make sure everyone can access the care they need quickly and safely.’