117168
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

General Practice is Broken – And It’s Not For Lack of Money

by Will Jones
1 June 2022 1:04 PM

During the pandemic, GPs adopted a new system designed to reduce the number of patients who could see or speak to their doctor. Devastatingly effective on its own terms, it was equally devastating for the health of patients. Yet there is no sign that this ’emergency’ measure is going anywhere, as doctors get used to a reduced level of contact with patients. Former NHS cancer surgeon J. Meirion Thomas writes about the problem in the Spectator.

In March 2020, as the health service prepared for the first Covid wave, NHS England encouraged GPs to adopt a new system called ‘total triage’. The aim was to reduce the number of patients in clinics in order to protect GPs, their staff and patients themselves from the virus. If patients hoped this system was a temporary, emergency measure, they were wrong.

Under ‘total triage’, patients had to provide far more details of their (sometimes sensitive and embarrassing) symptoms to a receptionist or on an e-consultation form. They would then be allocated a telephone consultation with their GP or another health professional such as a nurse, pharmacist or physiotherapist. In the first year of the pandemic, records show there were 90 million fewer face-to-face appointments – a drop of 40%. Of these, 70 million happened on the phone instead, but the figures still show tens of millions fewer appointments overall.

While Britain is moving on from Covid, many GP surgeries are emphatically not. It’s still quite common to see signs telling patients to go away unless they have booked an appointment via internet or phone. ‘Total triage’ has meant that GPs have had far less opportunity to examine patients, which has led to delayed or failed diagnoses. The burden of urgent care has rapidly transferred to A&E, where pressure has become intense. At the last count 24,000 patients per month had to wait for more than 12 hours to be seen. The reason is simple: general practice is broken.

Rather than acknowledge these problems, the unions – the British Medical Association and Royal College of GPs – insist that all can be solved by their long-term mantra of ‘more investment’. The Government has swallowed the bait and has promised 6,000 more doctors within two years. This unachievable goal is doomed to failure, as was Jeremy Hunt’s 2015 promise of 5,000 more GPs by 2020. Experienced GPs are leaving the profession in droves and medical students, after they complete their placements in general practice and see the insurmountable problems, are reluctant to fill the gaps. The number of fully qualified GPs in the NHS has changed little in the past three years.

And the patients? A recent poll by the British Social Attitudes Survey has shown that public satisfaction with GP services is at its lowest since the surveys began in 1983. NHS spending has trebled since then.

It doesn’t help, Meirion adds, that “an astonishing 58% of GPs work three days or fewer per week” and that one in three told a survey last year that they would like to quit direct patient care within five years. Nor that they haven’t had any contractual responsibility for out-of-hours care since 2004.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: GP appointmentsGPsLockdown harmsNHSWork from home

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Reuters “Fact Check” Claims Daily Sceptic Arctic Sea Ice Story was “Misleading”, But Can’t Find Any Wrong Facts

Next Post

HSBC Brings Back Masks and Daily Covid Tests for Employees Amidst “Surge in U.S. Covid Infections”

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

140 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

 

DONATE

PODCAST

Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About Trump’s Arrest, the Police’s Preference for Wokery Over Free Speech and the Glorious Implosion of the SNP

by Will Jones
21 March 2023
0

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks

Latest UN Climate Doom Report Falsely Claims Global Temperatures Are “Highest for 125,000 Years”

21 March 2023
by Chris Morrison

News Round-Up

21 March 2023
by Will Jones

Government Makes Laughable Claim the MHRA is “Globally Recognised for Requiring High Standards of Safety and Effectiveness”

21 March 2023
by Nick Denim

Net Zero Must Be Brought Forward by a Decade to Stop “Climate Time Bomb”, Says UN

20 March 2023
by Will Jones

Boris Makes His Partygate Defence

21 March 2023
by Will Jones

Government Makes Laughable Claim the MHRA is “Globally Recognised for Requiring High Standards of Safety and Effectiveness”

52

Latest UN Climate Doom Report Falsely Claims Global Temperatures Are “Highest for 125,000 Years”

34

Net Zero Must Be Brought Forward by a Decade to Stop “Climate Time Bomb”, Says UN

64

Boris Makes His Partygate Defence

17

Biden Orders U.S. Intelligence to Release All Documents on Covid Origins and Any Links to the Wuhan Lab Within 90 days

14

Is the Met “Institutionally Racist”?

21 March 2023
by Will Jones

Latest UN Climate Doom Report Falsely Claims Global Temperatures Are “Highest for 125,000 Years”

21 March 2023
by Chris Morrison

Government Makes Laughable Claim the MHRA is “Globally Recognised for Requiring High Standards of Safety and Effectiveness”

21 March 2023
by Nick Denim

Intelligence of German Children May Have Fallen During Lockdown

20 March 2023
by Noah Carl

It Was A ‘Vaccine Strategy’ From The Start

18 March 2023
by Alex Starling

POSTS BY DATE

June 2022
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« May   Jul »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment