Health secretary Sajid Javid has blamed practices for pressures on emergency care in a parliamentary appearance that caused fresh alarm to professional leaders.

Speaking to MPs on the parliamentary health committee, Mr Javid also backtracked on government promises to recruit 6,000 extra GPs, saying “I’m not going to pretend we’re on track when we are clearly not.”

However, he seemed to pull back from the threat of “naming and shaming” practices over face to face appointments, claiming: “We never planned for league tables, we never have. That’s never come from the department, that’s never come from the NHS.”

He went on to say that one of the reasons pressure has grown on emergency departments is “because they’re not able to get through to their primary care services in the usual way”.

He added: “A significant proportion of people are turning up for emergency care when they could have gone to their GP”.

Royal College of GPs chair Professor Martin Marshall said: “Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, care workers and others across primary and secondary care have worked to their limits over the last 18 months. Now they face what is likely to be an incredibly difficult winter, with the potential for a surge in COVID-19 and a likely sharp increase in other respiratory illnesses and flu – and GP teams will continue to play a leading role in delivering the flu and COVID vaccination programmes.

“Reasons for mounting pressures on A&E are many, but we’re unaware of any hard evidence that significantly links them to GP access. Far from intensifying pressures on Emergency Departments, GPs and our teams make the vast majority of NHS patient contacts and in doing so our service alleviates pressures elsewhere in the health service, including A&E.”

Dr Richard Vautrey, outgoing chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said: “So while the health secretary’s admission today is long overdue, it is absolutely not news to GPs and their colleagues working in surgeries across the country that have been decimated by workforce shortages.

“The bottom line is we are haemorrhaging doctors in general practice. While more younger doctors may be choosing to enter general practice, even more experienced GPs are leaving the profession or reducing their hours to manage unsustainable workloads.

“A failure to show any meaningful support for GPs or efforts to retain experienced doctors – something completely absent in the government’s recent ‘rescue plan’ that has been overwhelmingly rejected by the profession – ultimately impacts how easy it is for patients to access their GP practice.”