East Lancashire patients could see longer wait for GP
The Royal College of GPs has warned that “valuable GP time must be spent on the frontline” during the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, with patient numbers expected to surge over the coming weeks.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdNHS England data reveals that 388,809 patients were registered at GP practices in the NHS East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group area on March 1st.
The number has increased by 738 since the start of the year, when there were 388,071 patients spread between 210 GPs, according to workforce figures taken a day earlier.
But while the number of patients continues to rise each month, different NHS figures show the number of full-time equivalent GPs in East Lancashire is falling – over the course of 2019, seven fewer GPs took on 3,852 more patients.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThat means the average GP now has around 1,851 patients, compared to 1,771 at the start of last year.
The figures include partners, registrars and salaried GPs as well as locum and retained GPs, but not other practice staff.
Across England, 60.4 million patients were registered at GP practices at the start of March.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBut despite a rise in FTE GPs in the country, the number who were fully qualified fell to 28,319 in December last year – 277 fewer than in December 2018.
The King's Fund says this is partly down to more GPs choosing to spend only part of their week in frontline clinical practice.
Beccy Baird, senior fellow at The King’s Fund, said: "Demand for GP services has been rising faster than capacity. The overall number of full-time equivalent GPs keeps falling and that creates a vicious cycle of increased pressure on primary care services.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad"Increasing the number of GPs, pharmacists and other primary care professionals is critical.
"The coronavirus will place further strain on already stretched services, and patients and the public can help.”
The Care Quality Commission – the country's health watchdog – announced yesterday that it will temporarily suspend inspections of GP surgeries during the Covid-19 outbreak to ensure staff can dedicate their time to frontline care.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdProfessor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Even in the face of the outbreak, primary care teams are still seeing more than one million non-coronavirus related patients a day.
"Most patients are, understandably, seeking advice and reassurance from their GPs about Covid-19 during routine appointments and this is already having an impact on GPs’ time.
“New primary care working arrangements, such as telephone triage and video consultations, will help, but remote consultations will not suit every patient.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“It’s inevitable that pressures and patient numbers will grow over the next coming week, and possibly months, as the situation develops.
“GPs will always do their best for patients but there are limits beyond which we can no longer guarantee safe care.
“We need to ensure that valuable GP time is spent on the frontline, and so the temporary halt of routine inspections by the CQC is a very welcome measure."