Health boss: We cannot resort to this GP bashing
Chief hits back at surgery claims
A local GP surgery has been dubbed “the Pentagon” by residents because of how hard it is to get an appointment inside.
Stirling Council leader Scott Farmer revealed the comparison to the high- security US government building this week amidst a national outcry over the toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on NHS services - and complaints from the public about being unable to obtain GP appointments.
But the claim was rebuffed by a top NHS Forth Valley doctor, who said GPs were busier than ever and said reports that suggest otherwise are just “GP bashing”.
The exchange came during a meeting of Clackmannanshire and Stirling’s Integration Joint Board this week after Councillor Farmer raised the issue of GP services.
The Stirling West councillor, who sits on the governing Health and Social Care Partnership board, said: “Obviously the whole systems approach is essential but if you get a block in just one then it can have obviously a chain reaction right throughout the whole system.
“I know community infection rates are high, but what measures are we seeing to start opening up GP services - because when we talk about health inequalities, that can have a profound effect on people finding it difficult or even the perception of getting access to GP service.
“I have to say that my local service, they call it The Pentagon. They call it various other things of places that are hard to access, impossible to access, and it’s gaining a lot of traction in terms of unease within communities.
“That’s obviously having a knock-on effect in terms of acute services and the impact that’s having, so I’m just wondering how negotiations are going to actually get those services up and running again.”
The question sparked a selfconfessed “rant” from NHS Forth Valley’s Associate Medical Director for Primary Care, Dr Scott Williams, who said GPs are open for business and that further unwarranted criticism could drive many out of the service.
He fired back: “I think it’s really important that we stop kind of perpetuating this myth that GP practices are closed. I know it seems very popular in the press at the moment to state this but GP practices have never been closed and they never stopped seeing patients face-to-face.
“What they’ve been left with, with infection steps and control measures, is having to deliver GP services in a much more restricted way.
“At certain times people have to come in. They have to come in for an examination, they have to come in if they’re getting bloods taken and things like that and if that fills up the waiting room, that completely limits the number of extra people we can see.”
He added: “On top of that, we have the sustainability issues in primary care before Covid started and that’s going to get worse and the more we perpetuate this GP bashing that’s going on just now, unfortunately, that’s driving people away.
“I’ve been informed just last week of a GP who’s retired at 52 because they’re just so fed up of what’s going on at the moment and we’re going to see more and more of that.”
He said there have been failures to bolster GPs, including the failure to deliver 800 extra GPs “promised” in 2017 and delays in a new contract which should have become operational in April this year.
Dr Williams said there is “no evidence” that GPs not seeing some patients face-to-face had added to the toll taken on other services.
He said: “There’s no evidence it is making a difference to the hospital. In fact, a lot of the evidence is the opposite because unfortunately, the hospital has had to shut down a lot of its elective work and some of the waiting times have gone up.
“GPs have actually seen more people who are on waiting lists because we still have to manage their pain if they are waiting for a joint replacement, we still have to manage their breathlessness if they are waiting for a respiratory appointment.”
He said calls through his own practice had increased from around 1000 a year ago to more than 5000 in the past week alone.
Fuming Dr Wi l l i a m s continued: “We reckon the amount of patient contact we’re doing is up 20 per cent on what we were doing pre-Covid - that’s with fewer GPs.
“I think it’s very important that this committee supports the work of General Practices. There will always be issues that people have. I think there will be occasions when patients do find it difficult, lots of occasions when patients do find it difficult getting any appointment with a GP - but that’s not because we are not seeing people face-to-face, that’s because there are not enough GPs and there are not enough GP appointments because of the way that the service is being provided and funded historically.”
He said GPs on average see many more patients in out of hours settings than hospital emergency departments and that if general practice “fails”, then “the impact on secondary care will be huge”.
Dr Williams also called for “support” for GPs.