Doctors call weekend surgeries a ‘luxury’
Service outside normal working hours extended despite claims the policy is a ‘ridiculous luxury’
The NHS has announced that evening and weekend GP appointments will now be available throughout England. Patients will have access to around nine million extra appointments per year outside normal working hours. NHS England said the service had arrived three months ahead of schedule and would help ease pressure on the health service during the winter. However, some doctors said the policy, at a time of growing GP shortages, was a “ridiculous luxury”.
EVENING and weekend GP appointments will now be available throughout England, health bosses have announced.
NHS England said that patients would have access to around nine million extra appointments per year outside normal working hours.
The extended service available from today means people can see a doctor, nurse or other member of a practice team during evenings and weekends.
NHS England said the service has arrived three months ahead of schedule and will help ease pressure on the health service during the winter period. A recent investigation revealed, however, that more than one in four GP appointments were left unused at weekends in pilot areas where the extended hours were available.
Family doctors said the findings by Pulse magazine showed that the policy, at a time of growing GP shortages, was a “ridiculous luxury”.
At least £3.5 billion more in real terms will be invested in primary medical and community services that will also improve access to weekday “in hours” services, NHS England said.
The health commissioning body said there were 5,321 more primary health professionals working in primary care than three years ago – higher than its target of an additional 5,000 by 2020.
Prof Helen Stokes-lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPS, said: “GPS across the country are going above and beyond to ensure we can deliver good, safe care for our patients under intense resource and workforce pressures.
“All practices in England now offer some form of extended access to routine GP services, and they will have tailored these to the needs of their local population. Our patients should always be able to access GP services if they become ill, either through our routine service, or the GP out of hours service.
“But we would also encourage patients to think about whether they really need to see a GP, or whether self-care or visiting a pharmacist are options in the first instance.”
NHS England said extended appointment times proved popular during trials, including in Herefordshire where more than nine in 10 appointments were used in August. In London, where the services have existed for 18 months, almost three quarters of appointments are taken up.
Extended appointments will be available through designated local NHS services and in some cases a patient’s own GP practice.
Dominic Hardy, NHS England’s director of primary care delivery, said: “As well as offering convenience and choice to patients, it will help to reduce some of the pressure on general practice and A&ES, and ease some of the wider system pressures we saw last winter.”