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Found 385 results
  1. News Article
    Around 80% of adolescents who died by suicide or who had self-harmed had consulted with their GP or a practice nurse in the preceding year, shows new research. The large study of 10 to 19-year-olds between 2003 and 2018, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, also puts forward a series of proposals to deal with the problem. The study, funded by the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (NIHR GM PSTRC), a partnership between The University of Manchester and The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA). It showed that 85% who later took their own lives consulted with their GP or a practice nurse at least once in the preceding year; the equivalent figure was 75% for those youngsters who harmed themselves non-fatally. Lower than expected rates of diagnosis of psychiatric illness, around a third in both groups, were probably down to a lack of contact with mental health services, rather than an absence of psychiatric illness, argue the research team. Depression was by far the commonest of the examined conditions among both groups, accounting for over 54% of all recorded diagnoses. Also, while suicide was more common in boys, non-fatal self-harm was more common in girls. Two-thirds of adolescents who died by suicide had a history of non-fatal self-harm. And while self-harm risk rose incrementally with increasing levels of deprivation, suicide risk did not. Read full story Source: The University of Manchester, 7 December 2021
  2. News Article
    Doctors' leaders have welcomed plans to allow GPs in England to defer some services to deliver Covid booster jabs instead. Practices can postpone minor surgery and routine health checks for over-75s and new patients until 31 March. All adults in England are expected to be offered boosters by the end of January in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant. A further 75 Omicron cases were confirmed in England on Friday. On Saturday the UK reported a further 42,848 cases of coronavirus and 127 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test while 372,557 booster jabs were administered on Friday. Dr Farah Jameel, the GP committee chair of the British Medical Association, said the new measures would release GPs from "filling out paperwork" and chasing unnecessary and often undeliverable targets. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have been struggling with significant prevailing workforce pressures - backlog pressures, winter pressures, pandemic pressures. "Whilst these changes make a difference and start to create some time, I think every single practice will have to look at just how much time it does release." Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 December 2021
  3. News Article
    A major GP group in Plymouth covering tens of thousands of patients could have its licence removed after failing to make ‘substantial improvements’ ordered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). In August, the CQC rated the Mayflower Medical Group “inadequate” and last month the regulator said it had served a “letter of intent” on the group after another inspection. Such a letter is the last step the CQC takes before a provider’s licence is suspended. Licence suspension would affect around 40,000 people (a sixth of Plymouth’s population), who live in one of the highest areas of deprivation in the country – according to Public Health England (now the UK Health Security Agency). Among the CQC’s concerns were safety fears about the way medicines were prescribed, poor management of high-risk patients, coding issues, limited monitoring of the outcomes of care and treatment, and patients experiencing difficulties accessing care and treatment. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 2 December 2021
  4. News Article
    Ministers may allow GPs in England to halt regular monitoring of millions of patients with underlying health problems as part of the urgent new blitz on delivering Covid booster jabs. Sajid Javid and NHS bosses are locked in talks with GP representatives at the British Medical Association (BMA) about relaxing rules which mean family doctors undertake checks on people with diabetes, high blood pressure and other conditions that mean they are at higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke. It came as the health secretary announced the government has secured contracts to buy 114m more vaccine doses for next year and 2023. The deals, accelerated in the wake of the Omicron variant, will see the UK purchase 54m more Pfizer/BioNTech jabs and 60m from Moderna to “future-proof” the inoculation programme, Javid said. The BMA, the doctors’ union, has been lobbying Javid for months to suspend or scrap the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF), which it says is “bureaucratic” and interferes with GPs’ right to judge how they care for patients. Officials with knowledge of the talks told the Guardian that those involved spent much of Tuesday discussing the suspension of part or all of the requirements under QOF. “They’re talking about a partial suspension of QOF. But they may well just bin it,” one said. However, sources stressed that ministers are nervous about approving a move that could lead to claims that vulnerable patients could see any deterioration in their condition go undetected by GPs. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 December 2021
  5. News Article
    A lack of support for general practice is indirectly putting patient lives at risk, amid escalating abuse in GP practices, the England LMCs conference has heard. A debate around abuse saw 99% of conference delegates agree that ‘the abuse of primary care staff directly affects patient care and puts patient safety at risk’. And 98% agreed that ‘when Government and [NHS England] choose not to support NHS staff, they directly affect patient safety and knowingly put lives at risk’. The conference also voted to ‘demand that healthcare policy is decided based on high-quality evidence on population health, and not the whims of a handful of vitriolic media’, with the vote unanimous on the topic. Speaking in the debate, which focussed on GP abuse and wellbeing, Dr Abel Adegoke of Wirral LMC told delegates that the NHS "runs on the blood of GPs" He said: "About four weeks ago, my younger sister was being buried and I had to watch via Zoom because that was taking place in Nigeria – yet I was still seeing patients. That was the day I felt so sad about being a GP because despite that sacrifice, I was still abused by a patient who wanted to be seen urgently for an absolutely non-urgent condition." "We are being taken for granted." Read full story Source: Pulse, 30 November 2021
  6. News Article
    Family doctors have reopened their bitter dispute with the government by accusing Sajid Javid of misleading MPs and the public by blaming overloaded A&Es on a lack of GP appointments. The Royal College of GPs has told the health secretary in a strongly worded letter that there is no basis for the claim, which he made to MPs last week and which was widely covered by the media. In it Prof Martin Marshall, the college’s chair, said that its 54,000 members “are dismayed and disappointed at the media coverage of your evidence session, which suggested that the lack of face-to-face GP appointments was placing additional strain on accident and emergency departments”. He disputed Javid’s claim that there is evidence which links the issues. He wrote: “You told the [health and social care select] committee you had seen data which showed that more patients were presenting at A&E departments because they were unable to access primary care. I am not aware of any evidence to suggest that this is happening and would welcome sight of any data you have.” Tensions are simmering between GPs and the government since Javid’s edict last month that GPs in England must see any patient who wants an in-person appointment. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 November 2021
  7. News Article
    Last week a receptionist saved a patient’s life. She put him straight into a face-to-face appointment early in the day. The doctor saw him and sent him to A&E urgently. He was operated on the same day. Receptionists are are given an impossible task, to fit a large number of patients into a small number of slots, and they have to stay calm. When the slots run out – which sometimes happens by 9am – they then have to persuade one of the doctors, already at the end of their tether, to add any patient they are especially worried about to their list. So it’s not surprising that when during the early part of the pandemic demand for appointments dropped by 30%, some very stressed and overworked GPs found their lives were a lot nicer without patients. And now that appointment levels have finally (as of May 2021) gone back to normal levels, some are finding the demand very difficult to cope with. This could explain GPs’ persistence at keeping patients at arms length. Telephone consultations are less intense somehow, less tiring. Some GPs feel they can control the day better by using telephone consultations and only bringing in some patients. But patients are experiencing this persistent distancing as rejection. And these rejections are hurtful. Some people have held on to problems for six months or more and then finally felt free to book an appointment when the restrictions ended in August. Except the restrictions haven’t ended, not in general practice. GPs seem unable to let the remote triage go. GPs say: “We are seeing patients face-to-face. We’ve been seeing them throughout the pandemic,” which is true. But only some patients. Plenty of patients who would have benefitted from a face-to-face appointment or an examination have not been seen. Patients are not idiots. They know telephone consultations are not as good. They know, especially older patients, that proper doctoring involves an examination. They know that the rapport and connection with a doctor can only come from a face-to-face appointments. And they wish to book an appointment with their GP themselves, without facing multiple barriers. Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 November 2021
  8. News Article
    A new information standard has been developed for sharing digital information on medication and allergies across different parts of health and social care services. The standard, which aims to reduce medicines errors comes into effect this month. NHS and social care organisations will have to show compliance by March 2023. GP practices, hospitals, mental health trusts, pharmacists, community teams and residential care homes will all have to meet the standard when transferring medication and prescription information between teams. The standard will be particularly helpful in reducing medication errors when patients transfer between care locations NHS Digital said. Having specific requirements in place for how medicine and allergy information is transferred will also provide clinicians with a more detailed and consistent source of medicines related information across all care settings and allow them to obtain medicines information more quickly and efficiently, they added in a document outlining the changes. The standard defines how the send and receive messages involving medicines information are constructed, and how the data within is structured so that it is machine-readable when sent between different IT systems. Dr Simon Eccles, deputy CEO of NHSX and national chief clinical information officer said: ‘This new standard will make medicine prescribing safer for patients and easier for clinicians, reducing errors in prescription and improving the monitoring of medications that can cause harm. ‘This is the result of a true collaborative effort between NHSX, NHS Digital, industry and the frontline that will make a real difference to the care and support local clinicians can provide to their patients." Read full story Source: Pulse, 28 October 2021
  9. News Article
    The BMA has advised practices to immediately start offering consultations of 15 minutes or more; and apply to close their patient list, as part of the fightback against the Government’s new GP access plan. It set out a range of measures GPs should take to protect their staff and patients and ‘prioritise’ core work amid pressure to return to pre-pandemic ways of working. In an email bulletin sent to GPs on Friday, the BMA’s GP Committee said that practices ‘should not feel pressured to return to a traditional 10-minute treadmill of face-to-face consultations that are neither good for patients nor clinicians’. It said: ‘Instead, they should offer patients consultations that are 15 minutes or more [and] apply to close the practice list to focus on the needs of existing patients.’ Read full article here Original source: Pulse
  10. News Article
    GPs are set to be balloted on industrial action over controversial reforms proposed by health secretary Sajid Javid. The “outraged” doctors in England have voted unanimously to reject the government’s plans at a British Medical Association (BMA) meeting. The government wants to see GP surgeries ranked in league tables to “name and shame” those that do not carry out enough face-to-face appointments with their patients. From early November, GPs will have to have their names and wages published if they earn an NHS salary of more than £150,000. The BMA says that forcing GPs to publish their earnings “provides no benefit to patients or their care, yet will potentially increase acts of aggression towards GPs, will damage morale amongst the profession, and only worsen practices’ ability to recruit and retain GPs”. GP surgeries will not be eligible for new funding if they fail to provide an “appropriate” number of in-person consultations. Patients will also be asked to rate their GPs via text message. Mr Javid has insisted that his plans would improve patients’ access to primary care – but the union representing the GPs says it has been “left with no alternative” but to ballot over whether to take industrial action. Read full story Source: The Independent, 22 October 2021
  11. News Article
    Almost three out of five GPs reported managing patient expectations about vaccinations to be one of the most challenging issues of the pandemic, with multiple changes to vaccine eligibility requirements leaving many people confused and overwhelmed, the president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Karen Price, said. In her foreword to the college’s Health of the Nation report, published on Thursday, Price said: “Unfortunately, some of these patients took their frustrations out on general practice staff”. “Differing eligibility requirements across jurisdictions added to the strain.” Schools should stay open as greatest risk of Covid transmission is in households, research finds The report is published annually and provides an insight into the state of general practice in Australia. It includes the findings of a survey of 1,386 GPs between April and May, of which 70% were in major cities, 20% inner-regional, 8% outer‐regional, and 2% remote and very remote. Read full story Source: Guardian, 21 October 2021
  12. News Article
    GPs in England are being told to see more patients face-to-face as ministers unveil a £250m winter rescue package. The emergency funding is being handed to GPs so they can recruit extra locum staff with an emphasis on providing more same-day appointments. Social distancing rules are also expected to be relaxed so that GPs can bring more people into their buildings. It comes amid mounting criticism about the fall in face-to-face appointments since the start of the pandemic. Only 58% of patients were seen face-to-face in August - the first full month following the ending of restrictions. That compares with 54% in January and more than 80% before the pandemic. Patients have also complained of long waits on phone lines to book an appointment. The £250m funding is part of the extra £5bn Covid fund announced last month to help the NHS through to the end of the year, and comes on top of the £12bn set aside for GP services this year. Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 October 2021
  13. News Article
    Doctors on the front line of the UK’s vaccine programme have said they are “ready to go” and will be able to administer doses “very quickly” in the months ahead, amid questions over whether or not the NHS can inoculate 2 million people a week. After suggestions that staffing constraints could hinder the roll-out of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which was approved for use last week, NHS officials and GPs have insisted that the health service is primed to deliver doses as soon “as supply becomes available”. On Monday, Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, said 100 hospital hubs and 700 vaccination centres – based in GP practices and other community settings – would have access to the vaccine by the end of the week, with plans in place to expand the programme. “We aim to get it into people’s arms as quickly as it is supplied to us,” Prof Powis said. “If we get 2 million doses a week, our aim is to get 2 million doses into the arms of those priority groups." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 January 2021
  14. News Article
    The increase in the number of remote GP consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic has not appeared to increase A&E attendances, according to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The regulatory body discussed concerns about access to GP services during its September meeting, including the suggestion that the increase in remote consultations and a perceived lack of face-to-face appointments were potentially leading to ‘increased attendance at A&E’. However, chief inspector Rosie Benneyworth has confirmed that – having looked into this – the organisation has ‘not seen evidence’ to suggest a link between the two. Despite this, she noted ‘anecdotal concern’ about people attending A&E departments if they ‘feel their needs are not being met elsewhere’. GPs have faced media criticism in the past few months for the perception that they have are failing to provide face-to-face appointments, with some believing that patients attend A&E as a result. Minutes from the September CQC board meeting said: ‘Concerns about access to GP services were… discussed, including the suggestion that digital appointments were not meeting the needs of some patients and how this could potentially lead to increased attendance at A&E. Work to quantify the extent of the problem and to monitor it was underway.’ But Dr Benneyworth told Pulse this week: ‘While there may be some anecdotal concern about people attending Emergency Department (ED) if they feel their needs are not being met elsewhere, we have not seen evidence to suggest a link between digital appointments and ED attendance. The latest figures also show there has not been a sharp rise in online/video appointments (according to NHS Digital they are not currently at pre-COVID-19 levels). Read full story Source: Pulse, 7 December 2020
  15. News Article
    PRESS RELEASE (London, UK, 19 November 2020) – The charity Patient Safety Learning and the Royal College of GPs have published new guidance to help patients with post COVID-19 syndrome (also known as Long COVID) understand the support they can expect from their GP. This guidance draws on the RCGP's recent summary and top tips for GPs caring for patients with post COVID-19 syndrome. Both these documents have been produced in advance of more detailed national guidance being developed by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Royal College of GPs, due to be published in December 2020. Helen Hughes, Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning, said: “We have used the RCGP’s guidance to produce a simple patient-friendly guide to help support people living with Long COVID in the interim period before more detailed guidance is produced by NICE. We hope that this guidance will empower and inform patients, providing them with an evidence-based document that can be shared with those around them. We believe that this will also help raise awareness of the health challenges these patients are facing so that their health and recovery needs can be better met.” Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “It’s important that patients experiencing debilitating prolonged effects of Covid-19, which we know affect a small but significant number of people who have had the virus, feel that they have the understanding and support of the GPs and other healthcare professionals delivering their care. To this end we hope this guidance is helpful for them. The RCGP is working hard to ensure that the long term effects of Covid-19 are recognised, especially in those who were never admitted to hospital, and that our GP members have interim guidance whilst waiting for formal national guidance, currently being developed by NICE, SIGN and the College, to be published.” Notes to editors: 1. The new Patient Safety Learning and RCGP guidance can be found here: Post COVID-19 syndrome: What support can patients expect from their GP? 2. Patient Safety Learning is a charity and independent voice for improving patient safety. We harness the knowledge, insights, enthusiasm and commitment of health and social care organisations, professionals and patients for system-wide change and the reduction of avoidable harm. We believe patient safety is not just another priority; it is a core purpose of health and social care. Patient safety should not be negotiable. 3. The RCGP guidance for GPs can be found here: RCGP, Management of the long term effects of COVID-19. The RCGP response and top tips for caring for our patients, V1 30 October 2020.
  16. News Article
    More than 200 GPs a month are seeking mental health support as COVID-19 drives up pressure on the NHS - and demand for help is rising fastest among doctors in primary care, figures from a confidential support service suggest. NHS Practitioner Health medical director and former RCGP chair Professor Dame Clare Gerada warns that the pandemic 'must surely be contributing to the increase in numbers of doctors presenting for help compared to pre-pandemic levels'. Before the pandemic, around 60 doctors per week were coming forward for support from NHS Practitioner Health, a free, confidential NHS service for doctors and dentists in England with mental illness and addiction problems. After an initial dip during the first wave of the pandemic, numbers of doctors coming forward each week spiked to 90 per week by June and now 'regularly over 100' per week, Professor Gerada said. Junior doctors and international medical graduates now make up 25% of referrals to the service, and younger women have been particularly affected. Data from NHS Practitioner Health show that up to 69% of all referrals to the service are for women, and nearly a third of all referrals it receives are for female doctors aged 30-39 - for issues 'ranging from anxiety, depression, burnout, PTSD and suicidal thoughts'. Read full story Source: GP Online, 28 October 2020
  17. News Article
    GP surgeries are waiting up to a month for supplies of this winter’s flu vaccine amid unprecedented numbers of patients seeking jabs ahead of the second wave of COVID-19, family doctors have said. The Royal College of GPs (RCPG) has written to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, seeking assurances that they will have enough doses of the vaccine to cope with demand. The struggle to get jabs has prompted fears that vulnerable groups, including elderly people and those with underlying conditions, will go unprotected. “We have heard anecdotally that some surgeries are waiting up to a month for replenished supplies of vaccine, which raises concerns that there are significant distribution problems,” Prof Martin Marshall, the RCGP’s chair and a family doctor in London, said in the letter. One GP in Nottingham said there had been “a huge uptake compared to previous years, well over what we anticipated” at their surgery among groups eligible for the free jab, “so supplies ran out quickly”. “The next delivery is several weeks away and there are patients in at-risk groups who are having to wait. We have a patient aged 70 with heart disease who wants the vaccine but we currently have none to give her until the next delivery in mid to late October,” the GP said. Shortages mean that people aged 50 to 64, who are being offered a jab for the first time on the NHS, may have to wait until those with a greater medical need have been immunised first. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 October 2020
  18. News Article
    General practices will struggle to cope with a second wave of COVID-19 unless urgent measures are put in place to support them, the BMA has warned. It said that practices in England were reporting that they did not have the capacity to carry out all of the work required of them while managing ongoing patient care, dealing with the backlog of care put on hold during the first wave of the pandemic, and reconfiguring services. Richard Vautrey, chair of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee England, said, “GPs, like all doctors, are extremely concerned that without decisive action now services will be overwhelmed if we see another spike in the coming weeks and months.” In the report, the committee called for a package of measures to support the GP workforce, including making occupational health services available to all staff to ensure that they are properly risk assessed and to provide free supplies of personal protective equipment. It also called for the suspension of routine inspections by the Care Quality Commission and of the Quality and Outcomes Framework, as part of efforts to reduce bureaucracy. NHS England’s covid support fund for practices should be rolled over until March 2021 and expanded to ensure that all additional costs such as additional telephony and cleaning are included, it added. Vautrey said, “The measures we’ve outlined are aimed at supporting practices and their staff to deliver high quality care while managing the increased pressures of doing so during a pandemic, and it is vital that the government and NHS England listen and implement these urgently, to ensure that primary care can continue to operate safely through what looks to be an incredibly difficult winter.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 1 October 2020
  19. News Article
    NHS England has been asked for a “clear plan and timescale” for development during covid of its controversial scheme which aims to provide extra support for care homes. In its adult social care winter plan the government has advised NHS England to push forward with the rollout of the “enhanced health in care homes” programme, ensuring that all care homes are assigned to primary care networks by 1 October. The scheme requires GP practices to provide extra clinical support and advice to homes. PCNs should also nominate a clinical lead for the care homes and work with other providers, such as social prescribing link workers, health and wellbeing coaches and care co-ordinators, to provide personalised care. The winter plan responds to a number of recommendations published by the COVID-19 support taskforce, after reviewing the management of the virus in the sector. It asks NHSE to provide a clear plan and timetable for its “enhanced health in care homes” programme. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 23 September 2020
  20. News Article
    A survey of members of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has found that almost two thirds (60%) of doctors worry that patients in their care have suffered harm or complications following diagnosis or treatment delays during the pandemic, while almost all doctors (94%) are concerned about the general indirect impact of COVID-19 on their patients. This is also compounded by the difficulty doctors are finding in accessing diagnostic testing for their patients. Only 29% of doctors report experiencing no delays in accessing endoscopy testing (one of the main diagnostic tests used by doctors) for inpatients, decreasing to just 8% for outpatients. Only 5% of doctors feel that their organisations are fully prepared for a potential second wave of COVID-19 infection, and almost two thirds (64%) say they haven’t been involved in any discussions about preparations for a second wave of the virus. While the government’s promise to roll out flu vaccines to millions more people is welcome, the RCP recently set several more priorities to help prepare the health service for future waves of COVID-19, including the need to ensure the NHS estate is fully able to cope. Only 5% say they wanted an antibody test for COVID-19 but were unable to access one. Of those tested, a quarter (25%) were positive, with little or no difference when it came to gender, between white and BAME doctors, trainees and consultants or between London and the rest of England. Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “Delays to treatment are so often a major issue for the NHS but as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s fair to say we’ve reached crisis point. Doctors are, understandably, gravely concerned that their patients’ health will have deteriorated to the point where they will need much more extensive treatment than previously, at a time when NHS resources are already incredibly depleted." “We also cannot underestimate the need to prepare for a second wave of COVID-19 infection, which threatens to compound the situation. Without careful and rigorous preparation, a second wave coupled with the winter flu season, could overwhelm the NHS.” Source: Royal College of Physicians, 5 August 2020
  21. News Article
    The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) has stressed the importance of GPs having rapid access to testing results for patients, as newly-released research highlights the role general practice is playing during the coronavirus pandemic. Released by Queen Mary University of London, and published in the British Journal of General Practice, the research showed GPs and their teams were continuing to deliver frontline care to NHS patients with both Covid and non-Covid conditions. The active role of GPs in the COVID-19 response is nothing new or surprising, though notably the Queen Mary research focused in heavily on ‘suspected’ cases of Covid, due to limited community testing throughout the pandemic, giving a clearer picture of the primary patient group using general practice services. Responding to the research, Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the RCGP, said: “This data shows the significant role GPs and our teams have played in tackling Covid-19 and delivering care to patients during the pandemic – and how the virus has impacted on all parts of the health and care services. “General practice has been open throughout the pandemic with GPs and our teams continuing to deliver the vast majority of NHS patient care to patients with both Covid and non-Covid conditions." Read full story Source: National Health Executive, 8 September 2020
  22. News Article
    General practices are “reaching breaking point” because of the “intense” workload pressure facing doctors and staff, the country’s most senior GP leaders have warned. The warning came as new figures from NHS Digital showed that practices in England delivered almost five million more appointments in March 2021 than the month before and nearly three million more than in March 2019. Richard Vautrey, chair of the BMA General Practitioners Committee, said that the figures underlined the huge efforts practices were going to and the workload pressure on staff. He said, “GPs and their teams are consistently telling us they’re busier now than they have ever been, and this data—which does not include a large proportion of the vaccine programme undertaken by practices, nor a vast amount of other daily tasks—backs this up.” Last week the Ivy Grove Surgery in Derbyshire provided an example of the strain facing some practices in a 16 page open letter to its patients about the huge demand it was facing and the resulting risk of staff burnout. The surgery said it would be reducing its use of the video consultation tool eConsult, as it had seen a doubling of demand over recent months, with some patients submitting several requests a day. In a statement the practice told The BMJ, “We are aware of the stir our letter has caused but have also been overwhelmed by the kind feedback from our own patients, and the many encouraging messages of support we have received from GP surgeries all around the country. We therefore know that many of our GP colleagues are experiencing the same issues, but they may be fearful of articulating what is happening." “We feel that open and honest debate about demand and workload in general practice is vital. If this letter goes even a little way towards sparking some much needed discussion then it will have been a good thing.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 4 May 2021
  23. News Article
    Many GPs find telephone appointments with patients frustrating and want to see them in person because they fear they will otherwise miss signs of illness , the leader of Britain’s family doctors has said. Prof Martin Marshall told the Guardian that remote consultations felt like working “in a call centre” and risked damaging the relationship between GPs and their patients. Telephone and video appointments had proved useful during the Covid pandemic, when GP surgeries limited patients’ ability to come in for face-to-face appointments, he said. However, while that helped limit the spread of coronavirus, “this way of working has been frustrating for some GPs, particularly when most consultations were being delivered remotely, who have felt like they’ve been delivering care via a call centre, which isn’t the job they signed up for." “Remote consultations have advantages, particularly in terms of access and convenience for patients. But we know that patients prefer to see their GP face to face." “Remote working has been challenging for many GPs, particularly when delivering care to patients with complex health needs,” said Marshall, who is a GP in London. “It can also make it harder to pick up on soft cues, which can be helpful for making diagnoses.” His remarks come as NHS leaders and doctors groups are discussing how far appointments should return to being in person now the pandemic is receding. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 28 March 2021
  24. News Article
    A survey of an area’s GPs and other primary care staff found those from a minority ethnic background feel they are less involved in decision making and less respected by their colleagues, according to results shared with HSJ. The survey, instigated by GPs in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, also found more staff from a minority ethnic background said they had experienced some form of bullying or harassment, including “instances of physical violence”. The work is thought to be unusual in primary care — annual “workforce race equality standard” surveys are required by NHS England for NHS trusts and, in the past year, clinical commissioning groups, but not in primary care. The survey in October was instigated by Doncaster Primary Care BAME Network and facilitated by Doncaster clinical commissioning group. It was sent to GPs and practice staff, community pharmacy staff, and other “healthcare professionals” in primary care. There were 136 respondents. The report of the results said minority ethnic staff felt they were less able to make decisions to improve the work of primary care, less involved in decisions regarding their area of work and less respected by their colleagues compared with their white colleagues. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 March 2021
  25. News Article
    The Royal College of GPs has called for an independent review of the link between poor Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection ratings and the ethnicity of GP partners. The college called for the regulator to commission the work in particular for those rated “requires improvement” and “inadequate” over the past five years, including practices which have since closed down. This will assess “if there is an association between the outcomes of inspections and ethnicity or country of qualification of the GP partners”, according to the RCGP. In addition, the RCGP wants to work with the regulator to discuss how the availability and transparency of this information can be improved to ensure minority ethnic GPs’ experiences are heard. Minority ethnic GPs shared their experiences of CQC inspections at an RCGP council meeting last week, where council members voted to support the above actions. Dr Howsam said: “The college’s BAME action plan commits us to delivering positive change for all our Black, Asian and minority ethnic members and we will continue to work constructively with the CQC towards an improved system of inspection that is supportive of GPs and keeps patients safe as we move away from the immediate crisis of the pandemic and into recovery.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 March 2021
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