More than 10 Million NHS GP Appointments a Month Still Not Taking Place Face-to-Face
More than 40% (10.2 million) of the GP appointments held in England in August did not take place face-to-face, according to the latest NHS data, despite continued demands for patients to receive the treatment they need and deserve. The Telegraph has the story.
According to NHS Digital data, 57.7% of the 23.9 million GP appointments in England took place in person in the first full month following the ending of coronavirus restrictions, a total of 13.7 million.
This means that a total 10.2 million appointments did not take place face-to-face.
Before the pandemic, the number of in person appointments stood at 80%.
The figures come despite Boris Johnson saying in September that patients are entitled to see a GP in person, amid mounting concern about access to face-to-face care.
Patients’ groups and campaigners have said many vulnerable people have been unable to access care, with coroners linking a string of deaths to remote appointments.
During the first lockdown last spring the percentage of face to face appointments dropped below 50%, and has been hovering between 50 and 60% ever since. …
Total number of appointments fell in August by almost 2 million, leaving the proportion seen face-to-face barely changed since July, when it was 56.9%.
The problems have started to have a knock-on effect on A&Es, with emergency care doctors saying a lack of GP access is a major factor in the high numbers of people turning up at hospitals.
Worth reading in full.
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Why is he wearing a face nappy? For Heaven’s sake.
The virus can go down a fibre-optic cable and emerge from a screen …
Yesterday I saw someone driving a car with a mask on, and there was no-one else in the vehicle. A lot of people are just bloody thick. That’s all I can put it down to.
Totally agree.
Just watch a episode of Pointless and you will be amazed at the dire standard of general knowledge, unless it’s sport, of course.
Or pop music.
Absolutely. And as for those numpties also wearing surgical gloves as well as their mask. Kin idiots
Why indeed?
Quasi religion/Ideology?
yeah Save The NHS Save Our NHS Save the whale oh for fucks sake you get it anyway we didnt save it
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jul/27/broadcasting4 ….
Obviously a computer virus. (Which I personally fear more than C19).
Because he is a cunt
He’s talking to van Tamm.
Why is anybody wearing a mask except operating surgeons ?????????
Spent the last few minutes laughing otherwise you’d cry with rage. When is this madness going to stop?
Because he is stupid!
Frankly what is happening is criminal negligence by doctors and politicians who have actively encouraged this crisis.
It is the deliberate dismantling of the health service
But they had to dismantle it in order to protect it, stands to reason.
They collectively got the George Medal, remember, for hiding and wetting themselves and refusing to do their job.
don’t remind me
One thing the Nobel peace prize being given to daft people/groups of people, but I never tthought it would happen to the George medal!
oh whoever downticked this get a grip – it is the deliberate dismantling of the health service along with almost every other aspect of what amounts to civilised society.
Not only are GPs refusing to have face-to-face meetings with us plebs, but they’ve exempted themselves from queuing for petrol with us plebs too.
?
Yes i love the Key workers concept Just who is a key worker?? and are non key workers consigned to a lower standing in the community now for not being KEY just mechanics and graphic designers .Just more NHSturbating for the simple folk of Great Britain .When my kitchen and bathroom were swimming in shit water i called a plumber he was “key” to helping that situation as opposed to a fat arsed Band 6 HR manager working from home”working from home” Did you see what i did there ,no you didnt because you werent in the fucking office you great big snowflake
Saddens me to say but the NHS needs to go and be replaced by a pay for use services. This should mean lower taxes.
Saddens me to agree with you.
It should but it won’t – it will go – it will be replaced by a pay as you go service but your taxes won’t be reduced – they should be but they won’t. Black financial holes to be filled
Lower taxes-possibly.
The cost should be about the same or slightly more
The main advantage of the Social Insurance Model is patient outcomes are far better in a first world system than they are in our 2nd world shambles.
Yes but what the fuck will we”SAVE” next time The National Trust,The National Film Library,The National Lottery I still dont know if we “SAVED” it they havent said yet have they ? im suspicious
Not sad at all, it would be a better arrangement. Before the NHS, the big hospitals were charities, people got treated; the first hospital to be built by the NHS was I think 15 years after it started. The founding of the NHS was more about ideology than public demand. The NHS too often treats patients as a nuisance, because the government is their customer.
And a better health service that isnt sucking the people its supposed to provide up through a manky plastic straw
The problems have started to have a knock-on effect on A&Es, with emergency care doctors saying a lack of GP access is a major factor in the high numbers of people turning up at hospitals. As a primary practitioner I can say that it has not just started ! all this summer the Aand E s have been rammed ! if a parent with a sick kid rings 111 out of hours they might get a call back six or twelve hours later . I can confirm that many out of hours services ie covering evenings , nights and weekends will only have one GP at times for populations of a million. If that GP is home visiting an end of life patient then the calls mount up and there might be several hundred calls on the screen. This crisis has been years in the making and has little to do with Covid , although the current protocols have been the straw which broke the camel s back. . When I go to a GP s meeting I see mainly women in their 30s and most have families. they are for obvious reasons not keen on night work .Dr Findlay… Read more »
It would be great if you could expand this post into an article for DS. You’re in a good position to do so. A lot of people have been wondering about what’s been happening in the hospitals this summer. Interesting point about the possible reason for media silence.
Peter- we cant rely on the media for anything, none of the MSM have any intention of doing proper journalism.
It commendable the degree that the doctors of thiscountry have stepped up sorry stepped back ,sorry stepped down .
I can only go by what I can see – my direct experience – and in that case I no longer have access to a GP and haven’t done so for over 18 months now. My GP’s surgery makes no bones whatsoever about it that they don’t want people inside the building in any shape or form, not even to so much as pick up a prescription. I have no idea what, if anything, the GPs are doing.
I know there are many wonderful NHS doctors and nurses. But some of them have jumped at the chance to avoid seeing patients. And some of them are rather too keen on following orders – however nonsensical or illogical they are
Perhaps for them then its time to think of a new career something more solitary that doesnt involve people
Doctors are far too busy counting their complicit vaxx cash, to be bothered about seeing patients.
My GP practice is still insisting on a phone call with your GP before you are allowed an actual appointment. They’ve been operating in that way for at least 14 months.
I need to see my GP for my annual medicine review ( something they insist on); part of which involves taking my blood pressure. This cannot be done over the phone, but perish the thought that I go straight to the appointment without the phone call! Not allowed. So I have to wait 3 weeks for the phone call, and then most likely another 3 to 4 weeks to actually see the Dr.
So the whole process will take getting on for 2 months, with the phone call a waste of time for everyone. But thems the roolz!
I’ve lived in my village for 11 years and it has always been the case that a telephone conversation was needed before an appointment.
That doesn’t seem to me to be a problem providing the GP calls you back within an hour or so, which was always the case before the current hysteria.
I haven’t needed to see him for a couple of years so I’ve no post-panic experience,but I’ve heard no complaints and the regular practice emails stress that they’re seeing people.
Must vary hugely according to where you live.
Unless you have severe hearing difficulties etc. and can’t use a phone. If you threaten them with legal action about discrimination and the Equality Act 2010, it seems to get them to make other arrangements, eventually.
AND OF COURSE WE HAVE TO BE SYMPATHETIC BECAUSE ITS JUST ONE OF THOSE PROBLEMS NO ONE ANYWHERE CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT ISNT IT.ISNT IT???? or AND IT S A BIG OR,THE GPS COULD START TO SEE MORE PATIENTS NOW THOUGH WOULD THAT WORK OR IS IT JUST TOO “OUT THERE” TO SUCEED ?
FYI, if you have cause to need medical help on a Saturday morning, for anything short of a heart attack, stroke or missing limb, you will currently wait over 90 minutes to get through to 111. And that’s before coofs season starts and the NHS collapses (again).
Think you can just turn up at an A&E department? No. You will be turned away, told to go home, dial 111 and make an appointment. Remember to pre-book your accidents.
I wish this was satire, but it is my recent experience.