GP survey reveals recruitment concerns

According to two major surveys, qualified GPs are struggling to find work, both as locums and as salaried doctors. The Royal College of GPs reported that 61% of GPs who have sought work this year say they have “struggled”, with 72% of newly qualified GPs reporting this problem. Meanwhile the BMA reported that 84% of locums cannot find work. The surveys come as political parties are fighting the election and promising to recruit thousands of GPs to tackle the crisis in primary care.

The college said the findings are backed by evidence that far fewer practices are holding long-term vacancies for doctors. Two years ago, 44% of practices had vacancies and this is now down to 22%.

The BMA said that 50% of locum GPs are now intending to change their career plans because of the shortage of work.

Both organisations blame the inflexibility of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which cannot be used for doctors but can be used for any other clinical role.

Call for practices to halt Physician Associate recruitment

Practices have been asked to halt the recruitment of Physician Associates (PAs) until new rules on their regulation and supervision are in place. The call has come from the Royal College of GPs following a consultation which involved 5,000 doctors. The college has also issued new advice to practices on the supervision of existing PAs.

The college says it now wants to draw up new and detailed guidance on induction, supervision and scope of practice. It says that those practices already employing PAs should ensure there is appropriate time for supervision and that they review processes for triage, induction and supervision. The interim guidance says that PAs should only see patients who have been through GP triage, and that if the patient returns with the same problem, they should be seen by a GP.

The college wants the regulation of PAs to proceed rapidly, but the BMA has now announced legal action against the GMC over its handling of regulation.

GP numbers are key for care continuity

Researchers at the University of Leicester have discovered that local GP shortages are responsible for declining continuity of care. They found that practices with the most doctors have been better able to maintain continuity of care in the last four years. These practices also tended to be able to see patients on the same day of booking.

Researchers found no connection with deprivation. They found that practices with previously good continuity have seen rapid decline, particularly outside London. The findings have been published in the Annals of Family Medicine. The study of more than 6,000 practices found that the proportion of patients able to see their preferred doctor dropped from 29% to 19% within four years.

 Welsh practices “hanging on a precipice”

General practice in Wales is hanging “on a precipice”, a conference has been told.

The Welsh Government is “continuing to ignore” the vital role of general practice, the Deputy Chair of the BMA in Wales, Dr Phil White, told the BMA’s annual conference.

Dr White said: “Practices are finding ways to stem rising costs – with many reducing existing staff hours or stopping recruitment entirely which all adversely impacts on workload. This is a crisis. It is truly shameful that GP surgeries are expected to run at a deficit, but health boards are simply bailed out by Welsh Government when they overspend.”

He added: “If one part of the NHS crumbles, the rest will follow. Over the last ten years, GPs have been expected to look after 33% more patients while the number of full-time GPs has decreased by 24%, with a fifth of all practices (nearly 100) closing their doors.”

Covid booster programme falls short of targets

NHS officials have made a last-ditch plea for elderly people to have their Covid booster vaccines as the programme falls well short of its targets.

Some seven million people in England were eligible for boosters this year. The programme ends this week, but at the beginning of the week, just four million people had received the vaccination. It represented some 400,000 extra vaccinations in June.

NHS England said the proportion of residents in care homes who have been vaccinated has increased from half to two thirds in the course of the month.

Women urged to contact practices for screening

Issuing data for Cervical Screening Awareness Week, NHS England reported that just 65.8% of women aged between 25 and 49 responded to screening invitations last year. It means that 1.3 million women failed to attend for screening.

Steve Russell, NHS Director of Vaccinations and Screening, said: “We have set an ambitious target of eliminating cervical cancer within the next two decades and we are doing everything we can to achieve our ambition by making it as easy as possible to make appointments, and continuing to send invites and reminders to all eligible women.”