Dennis Reed, of Silver Voices, a campaign group for the over-60s, said a growing crisis in hospitals and ambulance services was fueled by problems accessing GPs and social care. He said: “Primary care and social care are the beacon of the NHS and with them collapsing, we are now seeing the negative effects across the country, on ambulances and A&E departments – the situation is dire.” Mr Reed said more needed to be done to improve access to GPs to ease pressure on hospitals, with particular concern about the struggles people have had to access face-to-face appointments from the pandemic.
General practitioners “under incredible pressure”
On Monday, Dr. Kathryn Henderson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said lives were at stake, with too many patients having to endure “unbearable” experiences in dangerously crowded A&E units.
Professor Stephen Powis, the NHS’s national medical director for England, said health staff were working “steadily” to care for the growing number of Covid and emergency patients, but urged anyone in need of help to do so, saying the NHS 111 website could “mark” the best places for help.
Professor Martin Marshall, president of the Royal College of GPs, said doctors were working under “intense” pressure, providing more appointments each month than before the pandemic. He said the drop in the number of general practitioners had left many working “to their limits”, with many “burning” and leaving the profession early.
“Doctors and patients want the same thing, and we share our patients’ concerns about the difficulties they face in accessing doctor appointments,” he said.
“Our doctors and teams make the vast majority of their contacts with NHS patients and thus reduce the pressure on the entire health service – including the emergency departments – but the service is under incredible pressure.”
He urged the government to make progress on commitments to increase the number of doctors.
The new directive also instructed doctors to ensure that at least one doctor’s office in each area would be open all day on Saturdays and until 20:00 on weekdays until October.
Until then, GPs are being asked to extend their opening hours beyond what they currently provide – which means that if an operating room is scheduled to open by 6.30pm, they will only be paid for ” extended hours “opening later.
The latest guidance also seeks to end the half-day closure by saying that this should no longer be allowed on a routine basis.
