A senior GP has set out the hard choices that practices now face – questioning the Prime Minister’s claim that practices can help deliver a million booster vaccines a day.

GPs need to continue to be concerned about other life-threatening diseases that affect their patients, as well as COVID, according to Dr Brigid Joughin, clinical director of the Outer West Newcastle Primary Care Network.

Speaking to the Newcastle Chronicle, she said: “Boris Johnson is putting on this bravado, but it’s not been thought through and is all a political game – it is all Boris wanting to say something that sounds great. We can rise to the challenge and say, okay we’ll manage to do what the government says, but we need all hands on deck.”

She added: “For all they are saying this is priority, we still have to run services. Someone’s not going to stop ringing up if they have hurt their leg. We still have to run smears – and really, what’s going to have the greater morbidity – missing smear tests, missing cancer diagnoses or missing diabetes, or someone catching the new variant? It’s difficult.”

Royal College of GPs chair Professor Martin Marshall said: “We understand the need to expand this capacity significantly in order to ensure as many people receive their booster jab – or initial vaccination, if they haven’t already done so – by the end of the year. But this will have an impact on the other care and services we are able to provide in general practice.

“People will not stop being sick or needing GP care for other illnesses and conditions. This has been a balancing act general practice has been treading throughout the pandemic – and GPs and our teams will continue to strive to ensure patients who need our care are able to get it in a safe and appropriate way.”

The UK yesterday reported a record number of daily COVID infections – 78,610 – although the daily numbers of deaths, 165, remain below the autumn peak in early November. The number of COVID patients in hospital, 6,358, also remained below November peak levels.

Chief medical officer Professor Chris Witty, however, warned of the risk of huge pressures on health services. He said: “I am afraid there will be an increasing number of Omicron patients going into the NHS, going into hospital, going into intensive care, and exact ratios we don’t yet know, but there will be substantial numbers. I think that’s a reasonably nailed-on prospect.”