Mrs May - don't scapegoat GPs for the crisis in the NHS

Last weekend the government attempted to blame GPs for the current crisis in the NHS. The allegation was that GPs were not seeing enough patients and that they were turning up at A&E departments instead and causing delays and queues in A&E. This is utter tosh!

At Kings Medical Practice we are open from 8.00 am to 6.30 pm every day, and offer an additional six hours of extended hours appointments per week; on Saturday mornings, one morning a week between 7 am and 8 am and one evening between 6.30 pm and 8.00 pm. Last week the clinical team saw 2522 patients and the GPs saw 1161 patients. Of those 1161 patients 554 people were seen on the day they requested to be seen - either at our Sit and Wait surgeries or by the Duty Doctor. In the first 12 days of this year, compared to last year the GPs in the practice saw nearly 30% more patients! The truth is that GPs are working hard, we are fully open and seeing more patients then ever before.

What Mrs May should have been doing is looking at the funding of the NHS. Historically funding in the NHS had increased on average by 3.6% per year. However since 2010 funding has increased by just 1.3%. The real cause of the problems in A&E are not because GPs are not open but because the NHS is underfunded. Sort that out and the A&E queues would disappear!

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