{"id":51036,"date":"2021-09-28T08:29:16","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T07:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=51036"},"modified":"2021-10-12T11:24:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T10:24:36","slug":"will-the-nhs-survive-without-gps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/09\/28\/will-the-nhs-survive-without-gps\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the NHS survive without GPs?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That rhetorical questions like the recent one posed by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2021\/09\/11\/gps-went-strike-would-anybody-notice\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">some in the media<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are even asked shows how deeply ill-informed and distorted the discourse on healthcare has become in the UK. Any dispassionate observer would know that GPs are the bedrock of the NHS; and without GPs the NHS will collapse. Here are just a few home truths: GPs in England manage a wide array of acute and chronic health conditions through over 300 million patient consultations each year compared to 23 million A&amp;E visits. [<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> GPs issue about one billion prescriptions annually <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and have delivered <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pulsetoday.co.uk\/news\/coronavirus\/gps-delivered-over-two-thirds-of-covid-vaccinations-in-phase-1-of-the-programme\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">two thirds<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of phase 1 covid-19 vaccinations. [2]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The public already know how hard their family doctors are working to care for them. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, soaring demand, a shrinking GP workforce and a workload that has often become unmanageable, GPs have one of the highest public satisfaction ratings of any public service in the UK. In a survey in July 2021, an overwhelming majority of patients (83%) rated their overall experience of GPs as good and 48.2% rated their experience as &#8220;very good.&#8221; [<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">3]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> By contrast, in a comparable UK survey of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cqc.org.uk\/sites\/default\/files\/20200702_ip19_statisticalrelease.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">adult hospital inpatients<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for overall experience in 2019, 48% of patients gave a score of 9 or 10 (good or very good).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">General Practitioners are highly skilled professionals who manage extremely complex medical conditions with limited access to resources, including high-tech diagnostics, available in secondary care. GPs not only treat medical conditions, but through their longitudinal and relationship-based care, also manage non-medical problems. One in five patients consults general practitioners for primarily social problems rather than medical. [<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">4]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Much of the reputation of the NHS in international league tables (ranked number one health system out of 11 countries in 2017 and fourth in 2021) <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">rests on the efficiency and excellence of its primary care. [5,6] A year\u2019s worth of GP care per patient costs less than an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kingsfund.org.uk\/audio-video\/key-facts-figures-nhs\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A&amp;E visit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and less is spent on general practice than on hospital outpatients. GP practices were paid an average <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pulsetoday.co.uk\/news\/practice-personal-finance\/gp-practices-were-paid-an-average-of-155-per-patient-in-2019-20\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a3155<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> per patient in 2019\/2020, but the average cost of treatment in A&amp;E, without the cost of ambulance or overnight admission, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kingsfund.org.uk\/audio-video\/key-facts-figures-nhs\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">could be up to \u00a3400<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Yet for the past two decades funding for hospitals has grown twice as fast as for general practice. [<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Further, between 2005\/6 to 2017 the proportion of money spent in general practice fell <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bma.org.uk\/advice-and-support\/nhs-delivery-and-workforce\/funding\/investment-in-general-practice\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">from 9.6% to 8.1%.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Recent surveys show two in three patients (67%) are satisfied with the appointment times available to them and 67% find it easy to get through to GPs. [<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">3] <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">General practice had to quickly <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/0141076820931452\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">adapt during the pandemic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to provide safe care by fulfilling their public health role in protecting their patients and the community from covid-19. More patients now consult in primary care than the pre-pandemic with over half these appointments face to face. [<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">7]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There are however serious problems and challenges that patients face including access to GP services and the quality of their care.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The public deserves honesty and courage from political leaders, commentators, and policymakers. Rather than skirting over facts by blaming GPs, who currently deliver over <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/digital.nhs.uk\/data-and-information\/publications\/statistical\/appointments-in-general-practice\/april-2021\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">31 million appointments<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> per month in England, politicians need to be honest with the public on what kind of healthcare the population needs and what they are currently getting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The UK spends less per capita on healthcare than other comparable countries (0.27% of GPD compared to an OECD average of 0.51%). [<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">8]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The UK also has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/data.oecd.org\/healthres\/doctors.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">one of the lowest numbers of doctors<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in leading European countries relative to its population, behind Estonia, Slovenia, and Latvia (about 2.9 per 1,000 people, compared with an average of 3.5 doctors across the OECD). The OECD figure also includes hospital doctors which have grown. In England, between 2004 and 2021 the number of hospital consultants has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk\/resource\/the-nhs-workforce-in-numbers#4-what-do-the-shortages-look-like-within-hospital-services\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">risen by 83%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (from 28,141 to 51,490). On the other hand, the number of permanent and locum qualified GPs in England <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk\/news-item\/what-does-the-gp-workforce-look-like-now\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">has fallen<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with fewer GPs in December 2020 than the year before. The Nuffield Trust analysis shows the number of GPs relative to the size of the population <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk\/news-item\/is-the-number-of-gps-falling-across-the-uk#key-points\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">has fallen in a sustained way<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the first time since the 1960s with the shortage particularly marked in some English regions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lack of an adequate GP workforce is only part of the problem. The recent media attacks on GPs highlights a total disregard for a workforce already at breaking point. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pulsetoday.co.uk\/news\/breaking-news\/record-number-of-gps-seeking-mental-health-counselling-amid-media-abuse\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A record number<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of GPs are seeking mental health counselling, and many <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gponline.com\/one-three-gps-planned-quit-within-five-years-even-covid-19\/article\/1718769\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">are leaving<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the workforce by taking early retirement or working abroad. Therefore, the question that we must ask is: if the NHS collapses, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">who<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will notice it? Those with platforms to undermine the NHS will be unlikely to notice it. The elite has the means and resources to seek healthcare outside the NHS and even abroad, but for everyone else the collapse of the system will be catastrophic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The solution starts with putting a stop to attacks on GPs and the NHS by politicians and the permanently outraged sections of the media. Secondly, to achieve health outcomes comparable to other OECD countries, the NHS must tackle workforce shortages and the decline in quality of services. [<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">9]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The increasing health needs of an ageing population and the growing demand for better healthcare require more than alienating and undermining a workforce on whom the NHS depends. General practice could make better use of non-medical professionals such as social prescribers to reduce the workload and people could be sign-posted to services in the community without a GP referral. The administrative burden on primary care is also unsustainable and must be reduced; for example, by suspending CQC inspections. We also need a dialogue between the public, professionals, and politicians about what kind of primary care system they want in the UK; with plans then backed up with the appropriate level of investment. Health systems with a strong primary care infrastructure can achieve better health outcomes, improve patient experience, and reduce pressures elsewhere in the NHS. This should be the objective that we strive to achieve.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Mohammad Sharif Razai<\/strong>, NIHR In-Practice Fellow in Primary Care, St George\u2019s University of London. Twitter: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MohammadRazai?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">@mohammadrazai<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Azeem Majeed<\/strong>, Professor of Primary Care &amp; Public Health, Department of Primary Care &amp; Public Health, Imperial College London <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Azeem_Majeed\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">@Azeem_Majeed<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><b>Competing Interests<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: We have read and understood the BMJ policy on declaration of interests. We have no competing interests.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><b>Acknowledgements:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> AM is supported by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration NW London. MSR is funded by the NIHR as In-Practice Fellow. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>References:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NHS England. Primary Care. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.england.nhs.uk\/five-year-forward-view\/next-steps-on-the-nhs-five-year-forward-view\/primary-care\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.england.nhs.uk\/five-year-forward-view\/next-steps-on-the-nhs-five-year-forward-view\/primary-care\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (accessed 19 September 2021)\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Patient Information. Where to get medication in an emergency. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/patient.info\/news-and-features\/where-to-get-medication-in-an-emergency\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/patient.info\/news-and-features\/where-to-get-medication-in-an-emergency<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (accessed 19 September 2021)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NHS England.\u00a0 GP Patient Survey 2021. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.england.nhs.uk\/statistics\/2021\/07\/08\/gp-patient-survey-2021\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.england.nhs.uk\/statistics\/2021\/07\/08\/gp-patient-survey-2021\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (accessed 19 September 2021)\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Advice Services Alliance. The role of advice services in health outcomes: evidence review and mapping study. 2015.\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelegaleducationfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Role-of-Advice-Services-in-Health-Outcomes.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.thelegaleducationfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Role-of-Advice-Services-in-Health-Outcomes.pdf<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Commonwealth Fund. Mirror, Mirro 2017. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commonwealthfund.org\/interactives\/2017\/july\/mirror-mirror\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.commonwealthfund.org\/interactives\/2017\/july\/mirror-mirror\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (accessed 19 September 2021)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Commonwealth Fund. Mirror, Mirror 2021. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commonwealthfund.org\/publications\/fund-reports\/2021\/aug\/mirror-mirror-2021-reflecting-poorly\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.commonwealthfund.org\/publications\/fund-reports\/2021\/aug\/mirror-mirror-2021-reflecting-poorly<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (accessed 19 September 2021)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Royal College of General Practitioners. College sets record straight on face-to-face GP appointments. August 2021. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcgp.org.uk\/about-us\/news\/2021\/august\/college-sets-record-straight-on-face-to-face-gp-appointments.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.rcgp.org.uk\/about-us\/news\/2021\/august\/college-sets-record-straight-on-face-to-face-gp-appointments.aspx<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (accessed 19 September 2021)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Health Foundation. The UK spends less on capital in health care than other comparable countries. 2019. Available from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.org.uk\/news-and-comment\/charts-and-infographics\/the-uk-spends-less-on-capital-in-health-care-than-other-comp\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.health.org.uk\/news-and-comment\/charts-and-infographics\/the-uk-spends-less-on-capital-in-health-care-than-other-comp<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (accessed 19 September 2021)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Papanicolas\u00a0I<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mossialos\u00a0E<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gundersen\u00a0A<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Woskie\u00a0L<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jha\u00a0A K<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0Performance of UK National Health Service compared with other high income countries: observational study<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">BMJ\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2019;\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">367\u00a0:l6326\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">doi:10.1136\/bmj.l6326<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That rhetorical questions like the recent one posed by some in the media are even asked shows how deeply ill-informed and distorted the discourse on healthcare has become in the [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/09\/28\/will-the-nhs-survive-without-gps\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":51037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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