The NHS is not getting better

During the pandemic, virtually every GP surgery in the land closed its doors as people were told to stay away from the NHS. The reason was ostensibly to stop the hospitals overflowing but it effectively put the entire system out of reach for those who did not have Covid or a condition requiring emergency treatment. The impact on the waiting lists in the NHS were immediate and continuing.

One thing that could have been expected after the pandemic was that GP surgeries would again allow patients to drop in and wait to be seen rather than endure the lottery of making an appointment by phone. But as we report today this is hardly happening anywhere. 

The trend towards remote primary care was apparent before Covid but has been accelerating ever since. Research by campaigners has found that GPs are becoming an “elusive species” – with eight in 10 elderly patients saying they have been forced into phone triage when they wanted a face-to-face appointment. Nearly one in five pensioners said they had ended up going to A&E because they could not get a GP appointment, even though the situation was urgent.

To say this is not good enough would be an understatement. The doctors’ representatives have sought to play down anecdotal evidence of surgeries that are effectively out of bounds, while ministers insist that they are getting the NHS back onto an even keel. But this is not true. Just a few years ago older patients were promised a named family doctor who they could get to see whenever they wanted. What happened to that? 

Instead of pretending that the system is getting better, the GPs and the Government need to get together and fix it.