People need their GPS

At Wednesday’s Downing Street press conference, Professor Chris Whitty had one point he particularly wanted to get across. He had been asked by his colleagues in the NHS to make it clear that the health service was open for business to everyone, not just Covid sufferers. “It is absolutely there not just for emergencies but for cancer care and all kinds of care,” he added.

Government ministers and officials have been at pains to insist that the NHS was not just a Covid service, yet the anecdotal evidence tells a different story. While everything else has opened up, most GP surgeries have remained closed, even if doctors are available for consultation remotely.

People can go to their dentists, get a haircut or even a massage, but cannot routinely get to see their doctor. Those whose conditions require face-to-face examination are confronted by GPS in full protective kit. The NHS may insist that it is open but people have been put off from going. Hospitals are strangely empty.

This has generated a crisis in missed diagnoses, delayed operations and excess non-covid deaths that over the medium to long-term threaten as many lives as the virus itself. A review by Prof Sir Mike Richards has exposed the scale of the problem in NHS testing services, with waiting lists reaching a “tipping point”. The aim now is to establish diagnostic centres in empty high street shops, retail parks and other outlets.

Prof Richards said the testing capacity of the NHS was already below par before the pandemic and the shortcomings had been amplified since. But it will take time and money to create these new centres. The problems caused by inaccessible GPS are immediate and need to be sorted out now.