21.05.15
Seven-day NHS is a ‘surreal obsession’ – BMA
Ministers need to jettison their “political pipe dreams” and “surreal obsession” with opening GP surgeries seven days a week and “get real” about resourcing general practice, according to the BMA’s top GP.
In his keynote speech to the Local Medical Committee conference in London, Dr Chaand Nagpaul also warned the government that it faces a “catastrophe” in the GP workforce with one in three GPs set to retire in the next five years at a time when the profession is struggling to recruit new doctors to the profession.
“Now the election is out of the way, I call upon the prime minister to jettison the political pipe dreams of tomorrow and get real about how we resource, resuscitate and rebuild general practice today,” he said. “It’s absolutely pointless promising 5,000 extra GPs within this Parliament if we lose 10,000 GPs retiring in the same period.”
He described working as a GP as having an “unsustainable, punishing pace and intensity”, pointing out that most work 12-14 hour days without a break with a mountain of responsibilities.
“The irrefutable fact is that patient demand has absolutely outstripped the capacity of GP services, and we simply don't have the GPs, appointments, staff or space to meet these escalating demands. And it’ll get worse – the demographic change of an ageing population will add further workload, with an estimated one million more patients who’ll have three or more long-term conditions in a decade by 2018.”
Dr Nagpaul was scathing on the government plans for seven day services, saying that it must wake up to the “alarming reality” that it will “fail dismally” in its manifesto pledge for 5,000 extra GPs and that unless it turns the situation around comprehensive GP care won’t be available in parts of the UK.
“Ministers must halt their surreal obsession for practices to open seven days when there aren’t the GPs to even cope with current demands. This would damage quality care by spreading GPs so thinly and will reduce GP’s availability for older vulnerable patients,” he said.
“We also need a national programme of proactive support from government with dedicated resources for GPs and practices struggling under pressure right now - not after the event when practices are about to collapse. And at a volatile time when any practice can be vulnerable, we need support - not threats or breach notices when practices can’t deliver due to circumstance."
Dr Nagpaul’s comments come on the heels of an NHE report in which a raft of senior healthcare professionals spoke out against seven day services.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: "This is an overly negative and pessimistic view from the doctors' union.
"Thousands of GPs across the country are already offering patients GP access seven days a week – by next March, a third of the country will be covered.
"We have made it very clear that we will train 5,000 more GPs and have backed the NHS's own plan for the future by investing the £8bn it needs to transform care closer to home."
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