Satisfaction with general practice at an all-time low

Public satisfaction with general practice services has fallen to an all-time low; in fact, it has halved in the last five years, according to a British Social Attitudes survey. Just 34% of people are now satisfied with general practice compared with 64% in 2019.

Making practice appointments easier to obtain was the public’s top priority for the NHS.

Dr Victoria Tzortziou-Brown, Vice Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “We know how much our patients value the care and services GPs and our teams offer, and we share their frustration when they struggle to secure timely appointments. Unfortunately, we simply do not have enough GPs to keep up with the increasing need for our care.”

Chris Hopson, Chief Strategy Officer at NHS England, said: “While there is still much more to do, the NHS’s plans to recover access to emergency, primary and dental care and reduce cancer, ambulance and elective waiting times are helping the NHS to deliver improved care for patients.”

Doubts about plan to rely on trainee GPs

A much-hailed NHS workforce plan is based on a huge increase in general practice work being undertaken by trainees, according to the National Audit Office. But the auditors say there are “significant weaknesses” in the calculations behind the plan.

The Royal College of GPs Chair, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, commented: “It is, of course, good that central to the LTWP plan is a significant increase in training places for general practice, but trainees should not be relied upon to plug workforce gaps, alone.”

She added that a key barrier to training more GPs was “a lack of adequate space to do so safely in practices. Recent polling by the College found that two in five GPs said their practice was not fit for purpose.”

Dr Latifa Patel from the BMA said: “The report notes that the total supply of doctors in primary care is projected to increase substantially over the modelled period, but the total number of fully qualified GPs is projected to be less than 2015. ​At the very least, NHS England needs to be honest about the challenges facing the healthcare workforce.”

Call for single digital prescribing record

The NHS in England needs a single, shared digital prescribing record to prevent a million drug errors a year, thereby preventing harm to 16,000 people and 22 deaths per year, according to a study in BMJ Quality & Safety. The study was commissioned by NHS E to highlight the benefits of NHS systems sharing data.

Studying one year in the service, the researchers found 1.8 million prescriptions affected by transition of care; 52% occurred at admission to hospital and 44% at discharge.

Researcher Professor Rachel Ann Elliott from the University of Manchester said: “The widespread adoption and active use of interoperable systems across the NHS will be pivotal to realising the benefits of interoperability and a key step towards the ultimate aim of having one patient-centred consolidated medication record.”

Locum GPs are “safe”

Locum GPs are just as safe for patients as permanent GPs, and some patients prefer them, according to a new study by Manchester University.

Researchers found that patients who saw a locum were 12% less likely than those seeing a permanent GP to return for a further consultation, and 21% more patients were likely to receive a prescription for antibiotics or strong painkillers. However, there was no difference in rates of emergency admission. The findings have been published in BMC Medicine.

Researcher Dr Christos Grigoroglou said: “Our qualitative research suggests that some patients actually welcome the opportunity to see a locum GP because they get a fresh perspective on their condition.”

Elderly patients face access problem in Wales

Many elderly people in Wales are finding it hard to access GP services. The Older People’s Commissioner for Wales reports that many patients suffer pain and live with deteriorating conditions, and feel worried and anxious about these problems.

The Commissioner, Heléna Herklots, said her report showed that “the changing nature of GP services and relationships between patients and their GP practices also appears to be creating barriers for older people in terms of arranging the right kinds of appointments or accessing an appropriate clinician. Delivering the action I am calling for will help to ensure that people can access the health services they need, when they need them, in a way that suits them.”

Gareth Thomas, National Lead for Wales of the IGPM, said: “Practice managers along with their GP teams across the UK work extremely hard to improve services and access for patients – but the UK Government and devolved governments need to realise that without adequate funding we will never be able to meet the vast majority of patients’ needs and expectations of GP services.”