Doctors in row with patients over face-to face appointments

THE British Medical Union says doctors are being subjected to a “wave of abuse” from patients over lack of access to faceto-face appointments.

The union has called for an urgent meeting with the Health Secretary amid increasingly fierce rows over the rights of patients to access healthcare.

Yesterday the head of the Royal College of GPS said the current situation – with just over half of appointments taking place in person – was “about right,” saying the public would “get used to it”.

Patients’ groups and campaigners have said many vulnerable people have been unable to access care, with coroners linking a string of deaths to remote appointments.

The BMA said claims that GPS were refusing face-to-face appointments were “dangerous” and “inaccurate”.

Before the pandemic, around 80 per cent of consultations were face-to-face.

But in recent months, levels have remained at around 56 per cent, despite NHS guidance in May which gave patients the right to see a GP in person.

In a letter to Sajid Javid, BMA council chairman, said GPS were using telephone, video and online consultations to assess patients and still providing face-to-face consultations “when this is needed”.

The Health Secretary has said those seeking face-to-face consultations should be given them.

But Prof Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPS yesterday said: “I’d say we are probably about where we should be; a reduction in face-to-face from 80 per cent to 56 per cent on average across the country is probably about right. I suspect patients will get used to remote consultations,” he told MPS, saying the rapid introduction of such systems during the first lockdown meant that GPS were still learning how best to adopt them.

Asked about the promises given to the public, which say their preferences should be respected, Prof Marshall said: “There’s no point in having a right if it’s undeliverable and it is essentially undeliverable because of the workload pressures.”

The RCGP leader said shortages of doctors meant GPS were increasingly unable to deliver safe care.

With the average GP now working three and a half days, Prof Marshall said the model of a full-time GP was “probably something we won’t see again”.

Research has found just one in 20 trainees intends to do the job full-time.

Yesterday Prof Marshall said patients could not expect their own preferences to be followed, saying decisions had to be “shared decision between the clinician and the patient”.

Asked about the risks of such systems, such as cases of cancer being missed, Prof Marshall said: “I think it’s happening less [than at the start of the pandemic] but there still is a risk of it.”

Dennis Reed, chief executive of Silver Voices, a campaign group for the elderly, said: “It seems to me really arrogant to suggest the level of face-to-face appointments is about right when we are hearing so many accounts of patients – especially elderly ones – suffering and unable to get the help that they need from their GP.

“We need to get back to at least the levels of before the pandemic.

“We are hearing too many accounts of patients pleading and pleading to see their GP, doing battle with receptionists, and only able to get an appointment by phone or online. The practice of ‘remote first’ appointments is inherently unsafe and bound to miss symptoms,” he said.

In May NHS England chiefs gave patients the right to see a GP in person.

‘We hear too many accounts of patients pleading to see their GP and unable to get the help that they need.’