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The British Medical Association (BMA) and the Royal College of GPs have slammed government proposals for GPs to become responsible for assessing patients’ eligibility for financial cost of living support.
The Treasury plans, released to a British newspaper on Sunday, include GPs writing prescriptions for money off energy bills for the most vulnerable and those struggling with their bills.
The Royal College of GPs said some larger surgeries can offer additional services, such as links with citizens advice services that can offer financial advice. But GPs and other members of their team are not qualified to assess whether people should or should not receive additional financial support to help them cope with rising cost of living.
Chair Professor Martin Marshall said: “We are also working under intense workload and workforce pressures, making more consultations every month than before the pandemic with falling numbers of GPs.
“There is a clear link between poverty and health, and rising energy and food bills clearly risk the health of our patients. As GPs we are already seeing the results of this in our surgeries and it is likely we will continue to do so as we approach what is likely to be a very difficult winter.
“Action does need to be taken to address this and minimise the impact of rising cost of living on people’s health, something that will impact on our most vulnerable patients most. But this cannot fall to GPs and our teams to facilitate.”
Floating these proposals via the media is deeply unprofessional
The BMA said that GPs do not have the time or the skills to do the work of the welfare system and it completely rejected any suggestion that primary care do this work.
Dr David Wrigley, BMA England GP committee deputy chair, said: “In these next few months GPs already have to worry about delivering the Covid and flu vaccination programmes that will be necessary to see the NHS through the winter, on top of their daily crushing workload and the enormous Covid backlog we now see.
“At a time when GPs are already overwhelmed with the greatest workforce crisis and longest waiting lists in memory, this addition to their workload would be totally unacceptable. It beggars belief that government ministers think it is appropriate to suggest GPs undertake it.”
It added that the government has not discussed this with them in any form and floating these sorts of proposals via the media is deeply unprofessional.