The group of MPs behind the paper asserts that despite their best efforts, “the elastic has broken” following years of pressure on general practitioners.
A new report condemns the “crisis” within England’s GP service, stating that obtaining an appointment should not be comparable to “calling a call center or booking an Uber car you will never see.”
The Health and Social Care Committee has accused the government and NHS England of “reluctance” to accept systemic problems and has warned that the “crisis” in general practice is “placing people at risk.”
It was stated that problems are not being treated with “adequate urgency.”
In addition, the group of MPs said in their report that the government’s promise to see all patients within two weeks would “not address the core capacity problem generating inadequate GP access.”
The conclusions, which were partially drafted when the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, was head of the committee, highlight several severe difficulties facing the sector, such as “unacceptably inadequate” patient access and “demoralized” general practitioners.
The committee has previously discussed the “Uberization” of the primary care physician service. One member, Rachael Maskell, stated, “Visiting your general practitioner shouldn’t be as random as reserving an Uber with a driver you’ll never see again.”
The MPs voiced concerns regarding “continuity of care” and stated that the majority of GPs no longer maintain individual patient “lists” as a result of which the ability to see the same GP has “deteriorated.
In addition, they highlighted GPs’ “unsustainable” workloads.
The report states, “General practice is the beating heart of the NHS, and when it fails, the NHS fails.
“We know that up to 90 percent of healthcare is provided by primary care. Nonetheless, the profession is currently demoralized, general practitioners are leaving almost as quickly as they can be hired, and patients are becoming increasingly unsatisfied with the degree of access they receive.
“Unacceptably limited access”
“We believe that general practice is in a state of crisis… despite the best efforts of GPs, the elastic has broken after years of pressure.
“Patients have intolerably poor access to and experiences with general practice, and patient safety is jeopardized by unsustainable pressures.”
“Given their unwillingness to accept the crisis in general practice, we are not confident that the Government or NHS England are willing to address the service’s problems with sufficient urgency,”
The association asserts that general practitioners are handling more appointments than ever before with fewer personnel.
The committee makes several suggestions, including the elimination of an existing target- and incentive-based system since it has become a “micromanagement instrument” that risks reducing patients to statistics.
In addition, the report recommended restricting doctor “list” sizes, examining ways to support part-time GPs to work additional hours, doing more to assist in the hiring of new doctors, and resolving pension tax difficulties.
Workload augmentation
Committee member Ms. Maskell added: “Our investigation has repeatedly heard about the advantages of continuity of treatment for patients, including evidence linking it to decreased mortality and emergency admissions.
“Yet, this crucial relationship between a general practitioner and their patients is deteriorating.
“We find it inexcusable that one of the defining principles of general practice has been allowed to deteriorate, and our study outlines a series of steps to remedy this slide.”
Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, stated that those, in general, practice desired to provide “safe, timely, and high-quality individualized care for patients”; however, workload escalation had resulted in a decrease in the number of qualified full-time equivalent GPs since 2015.
“Immediate action must be done, not only to enhance recruitment into NHS general practice but also to keep hard-working, experienced GPs in the profession for longer, delivering patient care on the front lines and not bogged down by excessive bureaucracy.”
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, stated, “Patients are unable to obtain a GP appointment in the manner they desire.
What’s being done?
A spokesman for NHS England stated that the primary care workforce has grown by 19,000 since 2019, with the addition of additional positions including as assistants and digital support beginning this month.
We continue to implement strategies to further improve patient access, experience, and care.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care stated that all patients should be assigned a named GP and that practices must “attempt to accommodate all reasonable requests from patients to see a particular GP for an appointment.”
A statement said, “Approximately 1,500 more full-time equivalent doctors are working, in general, practice now than in 2019, and we are spending at least £1.5 billion to create 50 million more appointments by 2024 – in addition to reducing the burden of GPs and freeing up appointments.”
