GP leaders have called for urgent action to cut red tape on practices to help them cope with the growing crisis in the NHS.

GP appraisals and Care Quality Commission inspections should all be suspended, according to the Royal College of GPs.

It also wants QOF targets suspended.

Chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said: “GPs are already preventing thousands of inappropriate hospital admissions every day. General practice is keeping the NHS afloat with a combination of professionalism, resilience and goodwill as we try to cram in more and more patient appointments, with demand exacerbated even further by the cold weather.

“General practice has a history of emergency preparedness plans ready to activate in times of crisis, such as during flu pandemics.

“We urge the Secretary of State and clinical leaders to take sensible decisions based on those measures – such as temporary suspension of GP appraisals, QOF targets and CQC inspections – so that all of our time, expertise and effort is directed where it is needed most, at the frontline of patient care.”

Senior physicians today warn of services “paralysed by spiralling demand to transform and modernise” as fresh evidence flooded in of the growing crisis in the NHS.

The 50 most senior members of the Royal College of Physicians all put their names to a letter to the Prime Minister Theresa May.

They warn of hospitals that are “over full, with too few qualified staff.”

Services are “struggling or failing to cope,” they say.

The signatories, led by president Professor Jane Dacre called for extra investment to be applied urgently to infrastructure and to reinvigorate social care.

Hospitals are also “paralysed by spiralling demand to transform and modernise,” they say.

Leaked figures obtained by the BBC suggest that across England, the four-hour target for A&E decisions was achieved in just 75% of cases last week – well short of the national 5% target.

The analysis by NHS Improvement revealed that a total of 485 patients faced waits of 12 hours or more.

It also showed bed occupancy levels of 94.7% – well above the 85% target.

On Monday health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the four-hour target should only be applied to patients with urgent health needs.

The Academy of the Medical Royal Colleges, meanwhile, called for an “open and honest debate” about the challenges facing the service.

In a statement, it said: “Whilst addressing immediate problems is vital, along with many other organisations and individuals that care about the way healthcare is delivered across all four nations of the United Kingdom, we believe there needs to be an open and honest debate about how we meet the challenges facing the NHS in the long term and how we provide a sustainable health and social care system for the future.”

Dr Mike Durkin, national director patient safety at NHS Improvement, quoted by the Health Service Journal, told a conference: “We are rabbits in headlights now with financial issues and waiting issues – and safety is being sort of, not being lost, but it’s there, and people are afraid to raise that as an issue.”