28th May 2015
Government plans to increase access to GPs were made a focus of the Queen’s address at the state opening of Parliament on May 26th. The speech – outlining the Government’s key priorities for the next political term – suggested ministers are sticking to plans to increase patient access across seven-day weeks, despite calls from the GPC to ‘jettison pipe dreams’ over the policy, and poor uptake of routine weekend appointments under pilot schemes.
“In England, my Government will secure the future of the National Health Service by implementing the National Health Service’s own five-year plan, by increasing the health budget, integrating healthcare and social care, and ensuring the National Health Service works on a seven-day basis.
Measures will be introduced to improve access to general practitioners and to mental healthcare”
BMA council chair Dr Mark Porter commented that the NHS is already putting these points to action, and instead questioned how the Government planned to address the funding gap and shortage of GPs. “The real question for the Government is how they plan to deliver more care when the NHS is facing a huge funding gap and there is a chronic shortage of GPs and hospital doctors, especially in emergency medicine, where access to 24-hour care is vital. General practice is already struggling to cope with rising demand from an ageing population, carrying out 40m more consultations a year than in 2008 while also facing a recruitment and retention crisis... With existing services struggling to cope, the Government must explain how it will fund and staff more GP and hospital services.”
RCGP chair Dr Maureen Baker also questioned the potential for increased access in the current workload climate. “In addition to existing out of hours GP services, many practices are already offering extended opening times but it is difficult to see how we can deliver this more widely with current resources, especially when there is a severe shortage of GPs.” She did however praise the Government’s commitment to Simon Stevens’ Five Year Forward View, hoping it would “honour its promise of 5,000 additional GPs as a matter of urgency.”
Elsewhere, the GMC said it was ‘deeply disappointed’ the Government had not mentioned reform of regulations for healthcare professionals in the wake of the Francis Inquiry*. Chief executive Niall Dickson said the body is “deeply disappointed that the Government has not taken this opportunity to improve patient safety by modernising the regulation of healthcare professionals. I hope the government will make these reforms a priority and introduce legislation as soon as possible.”
*Spearheaded by Robert Francis QC last year, the Francis Inquiry detailed failings in care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2009. Detailing patient suffering and calling for a cultural change to the NHS. The report made 293 recommendations for the future, including: openness and transparency throughout the healthcare system, and improved support for compassionate caring.