The pressures of the vaccination programme may have led to a slump in routine GP appointments, according to new data, published amid continuing concerns about the coordination of the programme.

Numbers of appointments have stayed below six million every week this year, according to NHS Digital, while a year ago they were routinely above six million.
The new time series, released on Friday, showed that the slump is not nearly as several as in mid-March last year after the first pandemic lockdown. In the second week of February 5.76 million appointments were made with practices, nearly three million of them with GPs themselves and 40% undertaken by telephone. A year ago, there were 6.06 million appointments, of which 3.1 million were with GPs.

The UK is to begin vaccination of over-60s, it was announced today, following expert advice that the government should stick to an age-based programme. Nearly two million people are to receive invitations this week.

The Royal College of GPs said the reduction in numbers of colds and flu cases might have contributed to fall in numbers.

Chair Professor Martin Marshall said: “We’re unclear as to the extent work associated with the COVID vaccination programme is reflected in this data, as if GPs and practice team members are working in different settings, outside of their normal surgery, it may not be recorded in this dataset. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK, GPs and our teams swiftly transformed the way we delivered many of our services in order to keep staff and patients safe, and maintain infection control in surgeries, so it isn’t surprising to see this reflected in consultation data from the start of this year, compared to pre-pandemic.

“When patients have needed face to face appointments, these have been facilitated in as safe a way as possible, and as this data shows, more than half of consultations in general practice are currently being conducted face to face.”

Speaking to the Health Service Journal, Ruth Rankine, of the NHS Confederation’s primary care network branch, called for more flexibility in the way the national programme uses practices.

The journal quotes one NHS source as saying: “There are empty NHS vaccination centres around the country. GPs are used to running big flu vaccination programmes. But I question whether we are now taking a bit too much from their day job.”