More than 90% of North East GPs don't think they have enough time with patients to make sure they are safe, while a senior North Tyneside GP has said he thinks GPs face are in the "most precarious position" he can remember.
The Rebuild GP campaign - launched by a the British Medical Association (BMA) and the General Practitioners Defence Fund (GPDF) and backed by former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt - surveyed family doctors around the country and found shocking rates of anxiety, stress and depression among GPs. Their survey also found just 13% of GPs in our region "believe that their practice is safe for patients at all times".
The survey also highlighted how almost three-quarters (72%) of GPs in our area think the risk to patients in their practices is increasing, and 91% said they "do not believe they have adequate time with each patient to provide a thorough diagnosis and therefore ensure patient safety". A worrying 86% reported struggling with their own mental health in the last year, too. That's based on answers from 1,395 GPs, 165 of whom are based in the North East.
Rebuild GP believes the Government needs to fulfil its commitment that there will be 6,000 more doctors in place by 2024 - and make sure it does everything possible to reduce the burnout which is seeing more and more GPs consider leaving the job or reducing their hours. The campaign says reducing the workload for individual GPs is vital to improving patient safety.
Dr George Rae - who leads the BMA's North East regional council - told ChronicleLive he "totally recognised" the concerns colleagues had raised in the Rebuild GP survey. "Unfortunately it rings totally true. There were problems in General Practice as far as manpower goes before the pandemic," he said. "And what's happened is the pandemic has held up a microscope to show where the difficulties are. It's poured oil on very troubled waters as far as workforce is concerned."
He said the issue of patient safety was a major concern discussed at the round the region's local medical committees (LMCs). He said that, in North Tyneside and Newcastle 's LMC at least, this was leading to practices considering radical solutions. "There's no doubt about it, it's been an extremely difficult time for all parts of the health service in this area. And yes, workforce is the underlying issue.
"It causes huge problems for practices right across the piece. Some of those worst affected are really thinking - what can we do? There's talk of if practice mergers might help - is that a way out? It's being considered. There's also 'vertical integration' - the idea that the hospital trusts could take over the running of practices. And I think at the last meeting there were something around 17 or 18 practices looking for either new partners or salaried doctors."
Dr Rae said the rise in demand for GP appointments coupled with staff struggling with already packed schedules and burnout after two years of the pandemic was a major safety worry.
"When it comes to the concern over patient safety, we are seeing so many patients without the necessary time to deal with them as we would wish," he said. "It's a massive concern. If you had asked two years ago, I would have said there was already a problem, but now it's significantly worse. There's no doubt about it."
The GP - who is a senior partner at the Beaumont Park Surgery in Whitley Bay - said patients struggling to get appointments was the last thing he and his colleagues wanted to see and added: "Everyone of us is a patient - and we want the best care for patients. but there needs to be something done to improve the workload for GPs. One of my real concerns is that the partnership model of general practice is under threat. I have never seen general practice in such a precarious position in the whole of my long career. It would be very very sad if this model disappears."
Dr Kieran Sharrock - a GP in Lincoln - has been the face of the Rebuild GP campaign. He is also deputy chair of the BMA's GP committee. Launching the campaign earlier this year, he said: "The scale of the exodus from General Practice in the last few years scares me. The UK Government must act soon to stop the bleed, otherwise every family who relies on the NHS will find their basic healthcare needs under threat.
"GPs are rushing headlong for the exit, and the UK Government is planning another review in England. This is fiddling while Rome burns. I implore our political leaders as the cost-of-living crisis bites: if you raise taxes to pay for NHS improvements yet fail to stem the flow of GPs out of local surgeries, standards will drop, waiting times will rise, and you will face a wall of public anger. We must rebuild General Practice, together, now."
Rebuild GP has also cited BMA analysis showing there NHS has lost the equivalent of close to 2,000 full-time doctors since 2015. In 2021 alone, the number of fully-qualified GPs fell by 700 even while doctors delivered more appointments than ever before. According to the union, NHS data shows doctors were seeing on average 46 patients a day - when 25 is the figure considered safe.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "We are committed to growing the general practice workforce to ensure everyone receives the care they need and there has been an increase of more than 1,600 GPs over the past two years.
"Through the GP access plan, we have made £520 million available to improve access and expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This is in addition to £1.5 billion announced in 2020 to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024 by increasing and diversifying the workforce."
