The receptionist will see you now: NHS front desk staff to care for patients

GP receptionists are to begin treating patients as NHS Scotland struggles to tackle staff shortages.

Reception staff in doctors’ surgeries will be trained to look after patients, in a radical move to deal with crippling pressure on the health service.

The scheme has been announced by NHS bosses who admit that hiring enough doctors to treat patients over the coming years is ‘unrealistic’.

Instead, GP receptionists and other administrative staff will be trained to work as ‘healthcare assistants’, carrying out blood pressure and weight checks and taking blood samples.

But the move, which is being drawn up in at least one health board area, has raised alarm among critics, who warn office staff may simply ‘not be suited’ for patient care.

GP receptionists are already given the job of quizzing patients who telephone for appointments about why they need to see a doctor.

They have been criticised for being ‘rottweilers’, accused of making it increasingly difficult for patients to be seen amid a shortage of GP appointments.

But they will now undergo ‘redeployment’ into ‘caring roles’.

The move has emerged in the General Practice Workforce Plan of one health board area and has been backed by the Scottish Government, which means it could be rolled out across the country.

It follows a move for other NHS staff such as nurses, pharmacists and high street opticians to pick up thousands of patients previously seen by doctors.

The plan, by director of health and social care at East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership Eddie Fraser, warns of ‘emergent concerns about GP workforce demand and sustainability’ but points out that the board has a ‘statutory responsibility’ to treat patients.

As well as giving nurses and pharmacists more work than was traditionally performed by GPs, such as diagnosing and treating minor conditions, Mr Fraser states there are also ‘opportunities for administration staff’, following a recent reduction in their paperwork duties.

The initiative states: ‘There is the potential that the removal of administration activity will provide the opportunity to retrain existing administration staff to take up healthcare assistant or other caring roles.

‘The requirement for this should be scoped and a training needs assessment undertaken and training sought as appropriate.

‘Recruiting the number of general practitioners annually is unrealistic. However, there is an opportunity to redesign locally to support practices to respond to this workload.’

Last night Mr Fraser added: ‘The modernisation of primary care has seen a reduction on the administrative burden on GP practices.

‘This has the potential to free up administrative support and, rather than remove this resource from local practices who employ these staff, they may explore the potential to retrain administration staff to undertake other support roles.’

Scotland’s GP shortage has reached crisis point, with around one in four practices reporting that they have at least one vacancy. A lack of new recruits and a retirement exodus is coupled with rising numbers of patients.

Scottish Tory health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘Primary care admin staff already do an important job within our NHS, and it’s concerning that they could be taken away from their work to do a role they might not necessarily be suited for.

‘We need real, long-term solutions to the GP recruitment crisis we’re facing in Scotland, and the SNP need to wake up and start taking action as frontline services are clearly beginning to suffer.’

Matt McLaughlin, Unison regional organiser for the NHS in Scotland said: ‘We are concerned that the health board in taking this forward appear to be ignoring the impact on GP surgery staff.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Our vision is of primary and community care at the heart of

‘Frontline services are beginning to suffer’

the healthcare system and to achieve that we are supporting the development of multi-disciplinary teams delivering primary care in every locality in and out of hours.

‘We have committed to national and regional workforce planning, considering local issues and recruitment needs.

‘This could include roles, remit and training of both administrative and clinical staff working within general practice.’