A leading GP has appealed for the support of local authorities following elected representatives of communities claiming that doctors' surgeries are "not delivering for patients they are supposed to be serving".
Dr Brian McGregor, secretary of YOR Local Medical Committee, the professional voice for all NHS GPs and practice teams across North Yorkshire, York, Bradford, Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven districts said GP practices were facing “immense and sustained pressure”.
Dr McGregor’s comments follow a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s Thirsk and Malton Constituency Committee last Friday, which heard many people were struggling to get appointments, particularly face-to-face ones.
Councillors said they understood GPs were dealing with unprecedented increases in patient numbers with limited resources, but to allow GP practice businesses to have a monopoly over healthcare across vast areas in North Yorkshire was “wrong”.
The criticism followed the government’s Plan for Patients being unveiled last month to improve access to primary care, to enable GPs to take on extra staff, including senior nurses, offer same-day GP appointments when needed and a limit of a two week-wait for a routine appointment.
Moving to dispel some of the claims made at the meeting, Dr McGregor said GPs were undertaking about 25 per cent more patient appointments than before the Covid pandemic and were now seeing a similar number of patients compared to before the pandemic face-to-face.
He said practices were also providing more opportunities for patients to speak to their GP or healthcare professional over the phone or online, and outside of normal working hours too.
Dr McGregor said: “It’s a colossal achievement, particularly against a backdrop of a shrinking workforce.
“Prior to the pandemic, we already had a workforce problem in primary care; there was already a wait of two to three weeks for a routine appointment, but what’s changed is the threshold for complaints, together with patient expectations.
“GPs are doing everything they can to keep patients safe, but increased demand from those awaiting hospital care – two to three year waits are now the norm in some parts of the country – alongside increased demand generally post-pandemic, together with a decreasing workforce is making this more difficult to achieve.”
Dr McGregor said the recruitment and retention of skilled healthcare professionals was a challenge across the NHS, but it was being acutely felt within general practice.
He said: “With an increasing workload and no increase in pay over the last 14 years, a career in general practice is being shunned by new doctors as a viable and attractive option.
“Media negativity, political rhetoric and punitive statements from elected representatives towards GP practices are not helpful and are eroding morale even further, making a career in general practice even less attractive.
“We need the support and understanding of our local authorities and elected members – we would welcome the opportunity to talk to them, so they can work with us to find solutions that can improve this situation in a non-confrontational and collaborative system. Simply demanding more will regrettably lead to less as colleagues leave the profession ever more rapidly.”
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