Plan to ‘free’ GPs

PATIENTS in Sunderland could get longer appointments with their GPs under plans being drawn up by health chiefs.

But achieving this would probably mean fewer people treated by family doctors in the first place. Instead, those needing care could be directed to pharmacists or nurses to ease the pressure on practices.

Scott Watson, Director of Contracting and Informatics at Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group, said on Wednesday: “We’re aspiring that GP appointments will become longer, but to do that we have to take away some of the burden of things GPs do.

“On any given day, between a third and half of GP appointments are used by people who don’t actually need to see a GP.”