GPs unable to offer appointments for routine conditions, poll finds

One in six practices say they have only had capacity for urgent patients at some point in past year

Jeremy Hunt pledged to recruit 5,000 more GPs but has so far lost 1,000 full-time doctors (PA)

GP practices say they are unable to offer routine appointments as a nationwide shortage of doctors means they only have capacity for urgent cases, a poll has found.

One in six family doctors responding to a survey said they had been forced to turn down patients seeking medical advice for routine matters in the past 12 months.

Nearly 800 doctors responded to Pulse, the magazine for GPs, with details of waiting times and appointments, 127 said they had turned down non-urgent patients, while 543 respondents said they had not had to – 99 were not sure.

Some GPs have no appointments available for over a month, and will screen every patient who calls by telephone to assess if they need to be seen urgently.

One of those affected was Dr Liam Foy, a GP in Derry, who said and “acute shortage” of GPs caused by partners leaving or falling ill, and a lack of cover had forced the change.

“We continued to offer urgent appointments and when these were filled we telephone triaged any outstanding requests,” he said, though they have now found some short-term locum cover.

Dr Jennifer Lyall, a GP in Cumbria, said they had adopted a similar approach after being left with just two GPs covering 7,000 patients.

GP leaders said the results are “further evidence of the pressures practices are under” and could lead to minor complaints becoming more serious.

It comes as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn used Prime Minister’s Questions this week to attack Theresa May on her government’s failure to increase GP numbers.

Its 2015 pledge to increase numbers by 5,000 doctors has so far seen numbers fall by more than 1,000 and Mr Corbyn said he receives an increasing amount of correspondence from people unable to see a doctor in a timely manner.

This is backed up by the Pulse survey which shows that the national average for GP appointments remains at two weeks, despite efforts to use technology and nursing staff to help bring down waits.

These long waits create even more problems for patients and practices.

Lincolnshire GP Dr Martin Tant said they had a four-week wait for appointments, adding: “We noticed a large rise in patients who did not attend their appointment, having booked this far in advance."

“GPs up and down the country are fighting fires, delivering care to patients with urgent health needs,” Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs said. “This often means patients whose problems aren’t necessarily urgent are having to wait longer and longer.

“Our concern is that a problem might not be urgent initially, but becomes urgent further down the line if it isn’t dealt with – GPs want to identify and treat problems early, so that it doesn’t come to that.”

BMA GP Committee chair Dr Richard Vautrey said: ‘This is further evidence of the pressures practices are under, with growing demands for appointments not being matched with an ability to provide them due to the continuing recruitment and retention crisis in general practice."

A spokesperson for NHS England said the responses amounted to 3 per cent of the 33,000 full-time GPs in the workforce at March 2018, adding: “We understand the pressures general practice is facing which is why the NHS is investing £2.4bn extra in GP services, growing the number of new doctors entering general practice, and rolling out evening and weekend appointments to patients across England over this coming year.”