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The outlook for GPs in 2015
Many GP surgeries open only from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, forcing patients to take time off work to see a doctor.
According to official figures, millions of patients have to wait a week or more for a doctor’s appointment and the move will make it easier for people see their family doctor from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week. It will help thousands who struggle to find GP appointments that fit in with their family and work life.
As well as seven day a week access and evening opening hours, these new pioneer GP groups will also test a variety of forward-thinking services to suit modern lifestyles, including greater use of Skype, email and phone consultations for those who would find it easier.
Every NHS patient in England will be guaranteed access to a GP seven days a week by 2020 if Conservatives win power in next year’s election, David Cameron has said.
Facts
- The commitment to seven-day GP cover for all patients will cost an estimated further £400 million over five years following the 2015 general election.
- Cameron’s intervention is designed to counter Labor’s plans to focus its election campaign on the NHS.
- Under Mr. Cameron’s plans, many more doctors will also be required to consult via email, telephone and video-call software such as Skype.
- Patients with long-term conditions will be offered ‘telecare’ technology to monitor their health, reducing the need for surgery visits.
- Access 8am-8pm, and on Saturday and Sunday
- Flexible access including email, Skype and phone consultations for those who might prefer it to face-to-face, when it is safe to do so
- Electronic prescriptions and online booking of appointments
- Easier, on-line registration and choice of practice
- Joining-up of urgent care and out-of-hours care to ensure rapid walk-in access to care
- Greater flexibility about how people access general practice, for instance with the option to visit a number of GP surgery sites in their area
- Better access to ‘telecare’ to help sick people stay comfortable at home, as well as to healthy living apps
The objective is for as many people as possible to benefit from extended access, as rapidly as possible, with the pilots leading the way for others to follow.
According to Mr. Cameron:
- The Government will provide hundreds of millions of pounds in funding to ensure that as many surgeries as possible open from 8am to 8pm.
- People need to be able to see their GP at a time that suits them and their family. That’s why we will make sure everyone can see a GP seven days a week by 2020, the Prime Minister will say.
- We will also support thousands more GP practices to stay open longer, giving millions of patient’s better access to their doctor. This is only possible because we’ve taken difficult decisions to reduce inefficient and ineffective spending elsewhere as part of our long-term economic plan.â€
- Under the plans, nearly eight million people will have more flexible access to GP practices before next year’s general election.
- Cameron said: “People need to be able to see their GP at a time that suits them and their family. That’s why we will make sure everyone can see a GP seven days a week.
- “We will also support thousands more GP practices to stay open longer, giving millions of patient’s better access to their doctor.
- “This is only possible because we’ve taken difficult decisions to reduce inefficient and ineffective spending elsewhere as part of our long-term economic plan. You can’t fund the NHS if you don’t have a healthy, growing economy.
- “This will help secure a better future for Britain, where people can be confident that when they or their loved ones need it, our NHS will be there for them.”
Pros and cons
Pros
Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said:
We live in a 24/7 society, and we need GPs to find new ways of working so they can offer appointments at times that suit hard-working people.
Cutting-edge GP practices here in Manchester are leading the way, and we want many more patients across the country to benefit.
Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector for General Practice, said:
This move towards seven day services is great news for patients, and should be embraced by GPs. I want to see brilliant access to GP services for patients across the country, and will be assessing this in each practice I inspect.
Dr Charles Alessi, Chair of the National Association of Primary Care, said:
This has the potential to be the most exciting development in primary care in the last decade. It is an opportunity for doctors to be the good family doctors they want to be while working with everyone in the system to deliver better care for everyone, especially those most in need.
Cons
- Osborne said it was unfair and unsustainable that increases in state support had outstripped pay rises since the start of the recession. The two-year 0% uprating would bring welfare increases in line with pay rises over the decade 2007-17, said aides.
- Doctors have claimed previously that there are too few GPs to staff the seven-day week and that doing it could have a negative impact on weekday services.
- The Government hopes that the measures will end the “treadmill†of rigid 10-minute appointments and allow doctors to spend more time on patients who require the most help.
- A source said: “We’re not being prescriptive as to how doctors do this — we understand that GPs will know best how to set this up — but we want to give them as many of the tools needed as possible.
- “We want patients across the country to be able to see a GP face to face every day of the week. That is very important.†GPs have warned previously that if ministers go ahead with the plans, patients could be forced to wait longer when visiting surgeries during the week.
- Dr Clare Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said earlier this year: “If you move towards these 16-hour days, it will be less likely that your GP will be available at a time you can make.â€
- Under the last Labour government’s GP contract, 90 per cent of family doctors were able to stop giving out-of-hours care at night and at weekends, the Conservatives have said.
- Labour also abolished the principle of a “named GP for every patient†– a measure the Conservatives have pledged to reintroduce.
So, the benefit to patients is clear but we’d be interested to see what GPs think to these changes?