GP pressures put care at risk, says Nagpaul

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, British Medical Association (BMA) GP leader, has declared that increasing pressures on GPs in England and Wales could result in doctors failing patients and potentially providing unsafe care.

Nagpaul warned that doctors were having to rush to keep up with patients, which risks their ability to identify cancer or correctly prescribe medicines.

Ministers have responded to the concern, promising they would invest in services to address the shortfall. The news comes as the BMA releases the results of an online survey of nearly 2,900 practices in England and 145 in Wales.

The survey showed that 55 per cent thought the quality of the service their practice offered had deteriorated in the past year, with 68 per cent claiming their workload was unmanageable and 92 per cent reporting demand had increased.

Nagpaul said: "It is unsustainable and getting to the point where it is not safe. The ageing population means many of our patients have multiple conditions and are on multiple medicines, but we simply don't have the time to properly consider how they interact.

"On cancer we are having to make rushed decisions. And we are seeing growing numbers of patients with dementia - and yet just have 10 minutes to see them.

"It's not enough. We are being forced to let down patients. We need to see more investment in general practice so we can keep up with demand and have longer 15-minute consultations."

The analysis also found that: there are an estimated 370 million consultations a year - up 70 million in five years; one in 10 GP trainee places went unfilled last year; a third of GPs say they are planning to retire in the next five years; there are 32,628 full-time GPs - a rise of just over 500 in five years; and that the number of GPs per head of population has fallen since 2009 to 60.6 per 100,000 people in 2014.

The government has promised another 5,000 GPs this Parliament in order to cover the push to provide seven-day opening. It also pledged to increase GP funding by five per cent in order to pay for the recruitment initiative.

Alistair Burt, Minister for Health, argued: "General practice is at the heart of the improvement we want to see in the NHS. We recognise absolutely that it is under pressure, which is why we are delivering record investment.

"The Health Secretary will shortly announce further support for GPs, which should assist in meeting the pressures doctors are reporting."