Lies, damned lies and statistics - workload, funding and all that!
Over the last couple of weeks GP's have been blamed for increasing numbers of patients going to Emergency Departments, the difficulties of the new out of hours service (111) and the pressure put on hospitals because 'allegedly' patients are not being able to see their GP. The clear implication in all this is that GP's are not seeing enough patients!
Last year, in Wakefield, 93,419 patients went to the Emergency Department at Pinderfields. In the previous year there were 87,814 attendances and the number attending in 2012/13 increased by 6.3%. At Kings Medical Centre in 2011/12, 57,987 patients had appointments with either a doctor or nurse in the surgery. Last year that number was 62,295, that is an increase of 7.4%!
The number of patients coming to our practice is increasing at the same time that the amount of money allocated to GPs to care for patients is set to fall. The Royal College of General Practitioners has predicted that the budget to care for patients will fall by nearly £200m over the next three years and the RCGP comments that 'GP practices being starved of the resources they need to meet the growing needs of patients and to safeguard the future of patient care'.
Only 9% of the NHS budget in England was spent on general practice in 2010/11 although GPs see over 1 million patients per day and 90% of all NHS activity takes place in general practice. The RCGP Chair Dr Clare Gerada said 'General practice is the most effective and cost-effective way of providing patient care - a whole day's care in general practice costs one tenth of a day in hospital. But funding and resources for our services is being stretched to the limits, with family doctors facing ballooning workloads, record hours being worked in surgery and real consequences for patient care.'
So, don't scapegoat GPs, we are working hard, our workload has increased and funding has reduced. If the government wants general practice to deliver it needs to invest in general practice to have the capacity to provide the quality we and our patients want!
Last year, in Wakefield, 93,419 patients went to the Emergency Department at Pinderfields. In the previous year there were 87,814 attendances and the number attending in 2012/13 increased by 6.3%. At Kings Medical Centre in 2011/12, 57,987 patients had appointments with either a doctor or nurse in the surgery. Last year that number was 62,295, that is an increase of 7.4%!
The number of patients coming to our practice is increasing at the same time that the amount of money allocated to GPs to care for patients is set to fall. The Royal College of General Practitioners has predicted that the budget to care for patients will fall by nearly £200m over the next three years and the RCGP comments that 'GP practices being starved of the resources they need to meet the growing needs of patients and to safeguard the future of patient care'.
Only 9% of the NHS budget in England was spent on general practice in 2010/11 although GPs see over 1 million patients per day and 90% of all NHS activity takes place in general practice. The RCGP Chair Dr Clare Gerada said 'General practice is the most effective and cost-effective way of providing patient care - a whole day's care in general practice costs one tenth of a day in hospital. But funding and resources for our services is being stretched to the limits, with family doctors facing ballooning workloads, record hours being worked in surgery and real consequences for patient care.'
So, don't scapegoat GPs, we are working hard, our workload has increased and funding has reduced. If the government wants general practice to deliver it needs to invest in general practice to have the capacity to provide the quality we and our patients want!
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