UK patients going private to escape referrals ‘black hole’, say GPs

Patients are increasingly turning to private healthcare to escape a referrals “black hole”, GPs have warned, as the NHS struggles with a shortfall of available appointments.

The most recent figures show GP practices make about 400,000 referrals a month to outpatient clinics that are fully booked. Some patients will be able to choose an alternative provider, some will be booked at a later date, but many end up being bounced back to their local surgery.

GPs typically refer patients to ­outpatient clinics using the NHS e-referral service, which can also be used by the patient to book a suitable appointment. The most recent figures, for July, show there were more than one million appointments booked in England, but 407,173 cases in which no slots were available.

The number of unavailable slots has risen by 78% since July 2018, when the comparable figure was 227,937. There were severe shortages of appointments in orthopaedics, cardiology and diagnostic imaging.

Quoted in this article, Helen Hughes, Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning, said there were concerns about the safety of patients unable to get timely specialist care. She said: “Patients waiting for care need to be monitored and reprioritised as their level of need is likely to change as they wait.”

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Source: The Observer, 25 August 2024