GP leaders have welcomed an independent report which calls for steps to improve the care of patients with disabilities and long term conditions.

It came amid a series of studies showing growing shortages of doctors – and new concerns in Wales. The National Voices organisation – which brings together 200 charities – issued three reports on primary care, calling for “modernised and revamped” communications.

One report highlights public misunderstandings and cynicism about multi-disciplinary working in practices. The main report calls for joined up support for patients with long term conditions and options for patients to book extended appointments with GPs. It says that primary care professionals should be better equipped to meet patient needs in holistic ways. It calls for practices to cease “wrongfully” refusing patient registrations. The report on multidisciplinary teams found a “low level of awareness” and a belief that they are a cost reduction measure. Data published earlier this week showed growing numbers of physician associates working in practices and primary care network along with a range of other professionals and advisers.

National Voices found that patients reported positive experiences with individual members of these teams, in spite of the cynicism – but that many saw their development as a “further barrier” to participation in health and care.

Its chief executive Jacob Lant said: “With public satisfaction in GP services falling and the unprecedented pressures on the primary care workforce as a whole, the ‘front door of the NHS’ faces perhaps its biggest ever challenge. Over the last six months we have been working with our 200 member charities, our lived experience partners and key stakeholders across primary care to create a new vision for the sector that can help political leaders and decision makers put people who use services at the heart of designing the future of primary care. Work on this vision has already helped to shape last month’s primary care recovery plan, and our nine proposals outline how we can go further to make a significant difference to everyone who accesses primary care services, but in particular people living with mental and physical health conditions and disability, and people experiencing health inequalities.”

The British Medical Association GP committee said the reports showed “amazing potential” in general practice.

The acting chair of its committee in England, Dr Kieran Sharrock, said: “While the Primary Care Recovery Plan has committed to improving access to GP services, this is only a first step and, as this report shows, there are many other areas in desperate need of support and investment, from standardising care pathways to speed-up diagnosis and treatment times, to tackling health inequalities. What’s critical to these proposals, however, is making sure there are enough staff to deliver them. According to the Health Foundation, we are currently short of the equivalent of at least 6,700 full-time qualified GPs. The long term workforce plan is imminent and, in that plan, we need to see how the Government will bolster the GP workforce, both by recruiting more staff and retaining the experienced, talented professionals already working in the NHS. Only then can we make visions like this a reality and give patients a service they deserve.”

Meanwhile in Wales, the BMA published new findings showing concern that GPs cannot provide “quality and safe” care.
The BMA in Wales launched a “save our surgeries” campaign, reporting the closure of 84 surgeries in the last ten years. Wales has a deficit of 664 GPs, it found, reporting that 80% of GPs in a survey said they were unable to provide quality and safe care. It found that 26.6% of GPs are planning to quit in the near future. The BMA is calling on the Welsh government to publish a workforce plan to match the one promised by the national Government.

BMA Welsh GP chair Dr Gareth Oelmann said: “Recent activity data shows that last year (22/23) alone, GP surgeries received a total of 27 million phone calls, with 19 million appointments offered, 1.3 million referrals to secondary care made and a total of 56 million prescription items issued all within a population of 3 million. Despite the remarkable efforts of hardworking GPs across Wales, the future of general practice hangs on a precipice because of longstanding underinvestment. The strain has been felt up and down the country, we have heard from GPs who have been unable to recruit permanent staff for years on end, examples of extreme burnout and a rising number of surgeries having to close their doors as a result leaving thousands of patients having to be treated elsewhere.”