It’s a miracle: Tales from the front line (Carl Heneghan, 23 March 2023)

Summary

In this blog, Carl Heneghan, Urgent Care GP and Professor of Evidence-based Medicine at the University of Oxford, looks at how the shortage of doctors working in urgent care is affecting patient safety. He tells the story of a patient with a blocked catheter, highlighting that with early intervention, this should cause few complications, but if not treated promptly, it can cause bladder damage and chronic kidney failure. This example highlights the need to ensure patients are seen quickly if they have an urgent need in the community. The blog points out that current Government plans to scale up urgent community response teams are inadequate as they only cover 12 hours a day and there is a shortage of GPs willing to work in urgent care.