GPs taking on overflowing secondary care work

A new BMA survey has revealed that GPs are having to provide more and more tests and treatments for patients that, before the pandemic, would have been carried out in hospital settings.

As a direct result of reduced numbers of patients attending hospital, family doctors across the country are now being expected to perform blood tests for hospital outpatients, prescribe medication that would normally be given in secondary care, and complete tests before making a possible cancer referral, which could lead to delays in treatment.

This is often because workload has also dramatically increased for struggling secondary care staff as they continue to battle against Covid-19, not helped by the lack of digital solutions to either carry them out while in hospital or to find alternatives in the community.

The BMA says that half of more than 2,000 GPs responding to the survey said that they are having to now provide care that would normally be delivered by secondary care colleagues. A further 81 per cent said that they have been asked to carry out new investigations and manage ongoing care, which would also usually be done in hospitals, further adding to GPs’ growing workload.

The increased workload comes as a staggering 80 per cent of GPs still say they need an increased supply of face masks for staff and another 69 per cent say likewise for patient face coverings as the NHS returns to increased face-to-face appointments.

Richard Vautrey, GPC chair at the BMA, said: “The NHS was always going to see a drastic increase in patient demand as Covid-19 arrived in the UK, but this crisis has truly shone a light on the lack of robust IT systems across the health service and the tsunami of extra work increasingly placed on GPs as a result. This needs rapid action to deliver long-term solutions to improve the interface between secondary and primary care, and make sure we have the digital infrastructure in place to stop unnecessary prescribing, duplication of workload and extending patient pathways.

“The longer this goes on, the more at risk we are of losing talented healthcare professionals which is why we desperately need to reduce the burden of unnecessary bureaucracy and regulation such as CQC inspections, put in place better digital systems, and provide general practice with the funding needed to deliver new services. Crucially though, we need to trust GPs as clinical leaders and give them and their teams the greater autonomy they’ve been afforded during this pandemic to bring patient care into the twenty-first century, where video consultations, for example, are readily available and red tape limiting change is dramatically reduced.

“If this pandemic has taught the Westminster Government anything, it should be that the NHS must be properly joined up and resourced at all times. Not only in preparation for something as serious as Covid-19, but also for after the crisis has subsided so that staff can continue to give patients, both in the community and elsewhere in the system, the safe, high-quality care they need and deserve.”