Six-year-old boy dies waiting to see GP amid worst drop in number of family doctors for 50 years

‘I was tearing my hair out ... a competently trained medical person would probably have picked up that something was wrong’

The parents of a six-year-old boy were forced to watch him die in agony as their increasingly desperate attempts to get help from a GP or NHS 111 came to nothing.

Sebastian Hibberd lost his life to a treatable bowel condition that was initially thought to be a stomach bug but eventually triggered a fatal cardiac arrest, his father, Russell, said.

An inquest is being held into Sebastian’s death after the NHS 111 non-emergency helpline failed to spot the severity of his symptoms. This is in part because he fell just outside the zero-to-five age bracket where symptoms including green, stringy vomit would have triggered an alert.

His condition had deteriorated over the weekend in October 2015 and his parents called NHS 111 on the Monday morning, who recommended they contact their GP.

When Mr Hibberd eventually got through, he told receptionists that his son was vomiting and delirious, but a promised call back from a doctor never came.

Despite multiple calls to the surgery and 111, Sebastian started having fits shortly after 1pm when an ambulance was called.

However, by that time it was too late to save his life.

Mr Hibberd’s story is to be broadcast on the BBC’s Panorama programme as research revealed there are not enough GPs to safely treat patients.

A poll of 1,700 family doctors, conducted by the magazine Pulse, found one in 10 doctors sees at least 60 patients a day, while some see more than 100 – three times the safe limit of 30 patients.

These pressures are being driven by collapsing GP numbers, with another report on Wednesday showing GP numbers have been in free fall since 2010.

Many doctors say the complexity of cases has also increased, these pressures raise the chances that seemingly innocuous cases are missed.

“I was tearing my hair out,” Mr Hibberd told Panorama of his fight to speak to a doctor.

“The experts who were brought to the coroner’s court said a competently trained medical person would probably have picked up that something was wrong [and] needed to go to hospital.”

However, the report also highlighted that Monday mornings are the busiest time and the family feel that the process has exposed the deep issues in communication between different parts of the system.

“It’s just ridiculous,” Mr Hibberd said. “You’ve got people falling through the cracks.”

Research conducted by the Health Foundation on Wednesday found increasing numbers of patients and fewer GPs to go around.

There is one GP for every 2,160 patients in England – an increase of 8 per cent in three years. It is the first time since the 1960s that GP numbers have fallen for so long.

However, the workforce has shrunk 50 per cent faster in the poorest regions – which often have the most complex patients as well.

On average, a GP working in the most deprived boroughs is responsible for 370 more patients than those in the most affluent.

“The vicious cycle of falling GP numbers driving increased workload is clear,” Ben Gershlick, senior economist at the Health Foundation, said.

“Combine this with population growth and the picture is even more worrying.”