GPs are facing a “really tough” situation at the moment as they deal with rising numbers of patients, and are also seeing people suffer due to the cost-of-living crisis, the head of the Royal College of GPs has said. Professor Martin Marshall told Times Radio that when he started out in general practice 30 years ago he might see 20 patients, but now he sees 50 or 60 and the “days are really long, often 12 or 13 hours”.
He added: “So, the pressures are enormous and those pressures are a consequence of rising need and rising demand for general practice services and the reducing number of GPs that are able to provide those services.”
Asked about the new Health Secretary’s pledges to increase access to GPs, he said that “people need to be able to get good access, but once they see a health professional, they need to see somebody who is able to provide high quality care for them, able to provide safe care for them and even that is increasingly difficult”.
