Britain’s top family doctor is calling for a “black alert” system to be introduced in general practice so that doctors can warn when surgeries are dangerously over capacity.
It comes as a report reveals that almost half of GPs can no longer guarantee safe care for millions of patients, as a shortage of medics means they are unable to cope with soaring demand.
Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), which represents 54,000 family doctors across the UK, wants a patient safety alert system introduced that is modelled on the operational pressures escalation levels (Opel) warnings – known as “black alerts” – already used by hospitals.
It would enable practices and GPs to flag unsafe levels of workload, triggering support from their local health system. GP surgeries would be able to temporarily suspend non-priority activities – including some regular health checkups, certain routine but mandatory staff training and non-urgent paperwork – during periods of excessive workload. This would allow surgeries to reprioritise routine and non-urgent activity and ensure patient safety is prioritised.
Hawthorne said: “General practice is a safety-critical industry yet GPs have none of the mechanisms that other safety-critical professions, such as the air traffic industry, have in place to protect them.
“Our number one priority is the safety of our patients, but GPs are doing more and more to try to meet the rising demand for our services. When you’re fatigued, you’re more likely to make mistakes and our survey shows that many GPs are no longer able to guarantee that the care they are providing to their patients is as safe as it could be.”
Source: The Guardian, 17 October 2023
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