GPs add to strain on A&E by failing to open all day
NEARLY half of GP practices are opening for less than eight hours a day, with more than 1,500 seeing patients for less than five hours daily, a Daily Telegraph investigation has found.
The Health Secretary last night urged surgeries which closed early to consider the “severe impact” they were having on the rest of the NHS, which is under the worst strain in its history.
Senior doctors warned that “the vast majority” of practices were struggling to deliver basic care during the week amid rising demand.
This newspaper analysed the opening hours of every GP practice in England, using data published by each surgery. The figures show that in 35 per cent of areas, practices are open to patients for an average of less than eight hours a day. Across one in six clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), surgery times lasted less than seven hours a day, with some practices open for an average of just five hours daily.
Accident & Emergency waiting times are now the worst in 13 years, with the lowest performance on record against several targets, including trolley waits in casualty units.
Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, urged practices that were not offering a full day service to do more to reduce strain on the NHS, and apologised for the performance of some parts of the NHS this winter, which he described as being “unacceptable”.
“GPs work very hard but if we are going to reduce pressure on hospitals their services need to be accessible,” he said. “Most deliver just that, not just in working hours but with evening and
weekend appointments that are now offered to 17 million people. But those surgeries that do not even stay open all day need to remember there is a severe impact on the rest of the NHS.”
The worst area was Swale CCG, in Kent, where surgeries were open for an average of five hours a day. These short opening times appear to be having a knock-on effect. Latest figures show the local hospital, Medway Maritime, sees just 73.6 per cent of Accident & Emergency patients within four hours against a target of 95 per cent.
Six more areas – NHS Blackburn with Darwen, NHS East Leicestershire and Rutland, NHS Thurrock, NHS West Norfolk, NHS Wolverhampton and NHS Rushcliffe – all managed less than six hours on average each. The seven CCGs with the lowest surgery hours cover more than 200 GP practices.
The figures follow warnings that GPs will lose an average of £15,000 per practice if they do not cover basic hours, under revisions to the contract for family doctors.
Yesterday it emerged that numbers of A&E patients seen within the target of four hours fell to a record low of 86 per cent in December, while those waiting longer than 12 hours to be admitted to a hospital bed doubled to more than 2,500 in 2016.
Locum doctors are taking home £300 million a year, NHS leaders said last night. Figures compiled by NHS Improvement and seen by The Times showed at least one doctor was regularly asking for £363 per hour – the equivalent of more than £4,000 for a 12-hour shift.