An official study indicates that up to 4.7 million visits to hospital accident and emergency units in the past year may have been due to people being unable to see their GP.
Research by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) discovered nearly one in five A&E patients studied had resorted to emergency departments because they couldn’t get guidance or treatment elsewhere.
Of those, the research found, around one third (35 per cent) said there were no appointments available and 30 per cent said they were not able to get through to or access the service.
Not all of those who sought help before going to A&E tried their GP, with slightly more opting to call the NHS 111 line, but those who did seek help were almost twice as likely to say they hadn’t managed to see, speak or chat online with a health worker as those who rang 111.
The CQC’s findings were based on interviews with 422 patients just before Christmas at two A&Es in East London, King George Hospital in Ilford and Queen’s Hospital in Romford.
If repeated across England, the results would mean up to 4.7 million of the record 24.4 million A&E attendances in the past year were because people had no other choice.
The findings came after representatives at last month’s British Medical Association conference voted in favour of plans to cut the number of patients they see each day to reduce their unbearable workload, but Dennis Reed, of campaign group Silver Voices, said this would drive more people to A&Es, which are already overstretched.
The CQC said the results couldn’t be generalised as the study was a small snapshot survey confined to one place, but the Patients Association said it showed patients went to A&E when they couldn’t see a GP.
Welcome to broken Britain, the country that’s falling apart everywhere, and what exactly are these GPs doing if they’re not seeing patients and still getting paid for it? Obviously counting their ill-gotten earnings.
It’s called stealing a living, not earning a living.
The government should start sending £500 bills to practices that are seen by A&E that could have been easily dealt with by their GP.
Most GP practices pride themselves on making sure patients don’t get to see a GP. They now don’t allow pre-booking GP appointments either, which means you have to plan your life around trying to see a GP, and because of this A&E and 111 are overloaded thanks to GPs still in hiding, and Boris Johnson should make them go back to work because at the moment it’s pretty well established that one could die before one can talk to, let alone see their GP, thus, it’s hardly surprising that people head off to the local hospital.
We’re considered to be one of the wealthiest and most developed countries in the world, but we can’t see a doctor.
They created walk-in centres in some areas. They were great because you could walk in there, take a ticket and just wait to be seen and it took a lot of pressure off the NHS and A&E departments.
Now you’re supposed to send a snapshot of your condition to your GP so that they can analyse it, this is absurd because so many grave illnesses are being overlooked, yet everyone else is supposed to get back to the office and carry on with their lives – GPs are a disgrace and are getting paid for being a disgrace.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 