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A new campaign has been launched by the British Medical Association and the General Practitioners Defence Fund (GPDF) that calls on the government to create a plan to reduce GP workload and improve patient safety.
GPs will join forces with Chair of the Health Select Committee, Jeremy Hunt MP, for the campaign which is called Rebuild General Practice. It is also urging the government to deliver on its commitment to deliver an additional 6,000 GPs in England by 2024.
It comes as a new poll of 1,395 GPs from across Great Britain found that nearly nine in 10 GPs fear patients aren’t always safe at their surgeries. Seven out of 10 also GPs feel the risk to ‘patient safety’ is increasing.
GPs cited staff shortages and too little time for appointments as the main factors putting patients at risk with 86% of GPs stating they didn’t have enough time with patients and 77% of GPs saying GP shortages were putting patient safety at risk.
General practice stretched to breaking point
Dr Kieran Sharrock, a GP based in Lincoln and BMA GPs committee deputy chair, said: “The scale of the exodus from General Practice in the last few years scares me. The UK Government must act soon to stop the bleed, otherwise every family who relies on the NHS will find their basic healthcare needs under threat.
“Even before the pandemic, general practice was on the edge. Now, we are facing the biggest public health crisis in a century. Covid has been relentless. Every day, colleagues around the country tell me about the challenges they face. Each has a unique story, but they are all united in one message: We are stretched to breaking point.”
Recent data shows that on average GPs are conducting 37 appointments every day – almost 50% more than the recommended number of 25. Last October GPs in England conducted more than 19 million appointments face-to-face.
Dr Sharrock added: ‘Despite this heroic effort, demand is at record levels and there simply aren’t enough GPs. The result is our current crisis: Hospital waiting lists are longer than ever. People are living with undiagnosed illnesses. And families know the frustration of sitting on the phone, on hold calling up every day to try to book a doctor’s appointment.”
The campaign aims to give GPs across Great Britain the time back to deliver the quality of care they want to be able to give patients while ensuring patients are cared for by the right team member. It also aims to resolve the difficulties many patients are facing in getting timely GP appointments and to benefit the NHS as a whole by alleviating pressure on hospitals. It is hoped the campaign can also help to tackle the backlog which existed before, but has been exacerbated by, the pandemic.
