Seeing the same GP ‘could aid longer lives’

SEEING the same family doctor could help people live longer, according to a study.

Living in areas of England with more fully qualified GPs and better-funded surgeries also had a positive impact on life expectancy, researchers found.

Academics from the University of Leicester explored the impact of general practice on how long people live amid what they described as a decline in access and continuity of care.

They analysed life expectancy data in the National General Practice Profiles system using 16 models, including population characteristics relating to deprivation, ethnicity and the number of patients on the diabetes register, NHS payments per registered patient, and the percentage of patients seen on the same day.

The findings, published in the British Journal of General Practice, indicated that deprivation and geography were “powerful predictors of life expectancy”.

More funding and a higher number of GPs were “associated with higher life expectancy”, although the number of GP registrars, receptionists and advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) were not. Other nursing staff, excluding ANPs, predicted lower life expectancy, according to the study.

This reflects “the employment of more practice nurses per unit of population in deprived localities”, researchers said. They added: “The number of GPs, continuity of care, and access in England are declining, and it is worrying that these features of general practice were positively associated with life expectancy.”

In January, figures from the Office for National Statistics covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland, revealed estimated life expectancy at birth had fallen in most local areas. In 2020 to 2022, the average was 78.6 years for males and 82.6 years for females, down by 38 weeks and 23 weeks respectively when compared with 2017 to 2019.