Theresa May orders clockwatching GPs to open up when patients want – or lose cash
Amid the growing NHS crisis, Downing Street stepped in to blast family doctors for closing early, piling more pressure onto overflowing A&E unit
THERESA May has ordered clockwatching GPs to open up when patients need them – or lose cash.
Amid the growing NHS crisis, Downing Street stepped in to blast family doctors for closing early, piling more pressure onto overflowing A&E units.
Under new reforms, GPs will be told to prove patients aren’t asking for appointments when they shut their doors.
It follows damning revelations that as many as three quarters of surgeries are shutting out patients in some areas by closing on weekday afternoons with others taking three hour long lunch breaks daily.
The PM is worried patients are being forced to turn up at A&E because surgeries are not advertising their extended appointments and feel they have no other option.
Mrs May wants GPs to provide services 8-8pm, seven days a week, unless they can prove there’s no demand.
Her three point plan would see extra funding for docs slashed unless they provide weekend and evening appointments when patients need them– not when they offer them.
Practices getting extra cash for opening outwith core 8-6.30pm hours during the week will also be asked to expand online services.
RELATED STORIES
Ministers believe more patients should be able to simply book online instead of hanging on the phone trying to get through to receptionists.
And GPs could be asked to collect data on the number and type of appointments they are offering so NHS officials can assess demand.
Those proposals are likely to anger GPs who will see them as extra red tape.
Providing seven day access to GPs 8am-8pm by 2020 was a pledge championed by David Cameron when he was PM.
Questioned over the crisis, Mrs May told a press conference at No10: "I recognise, and we have acknowledged, that the NHS is under pressure.
"We always see increased pressures in the NHS over the winter period. That’s why in preparing for the winter period this time, £400 million was put in to ensure that winter-preparedness."
Last night a Downing Street source praised the majority of GPs who have their patients’ interests "firmly at heart and do a fantastic job".
But the source added: “It is increasingly clear that a large number of surgeries are not providing proper out of care – and that patients are suffering as a result because they are then forced to go to A&E to seek care.
"It’s also bad for hospitals, who then face additional pressure on their services."
"That’s why ministers are calling on GPs to deliver on their commitments – and introducing reforms to deliver in the interests of patients."
Some GP practices are already leading the way offering worker-friendly appointments.
Langley Health Centre in Slough, Berkshire, opens 8-8pm, Monday to Friday and 9-5 Saturday and Sunday while the Barlby Practice in London offers appointments 8-9pm during the week and 9-5 at weekends.
The Government has pledged an extra £530 million in funding for GPs by 2021 to open extra hours and stem the number of patients attending A&E units.
At weekends the number of patients referred to A&E by the NHS 111 service shoots up a staggering 40 per cent – mainly because there are so few GP services available on Saturdays and Sundays.
It came as Jeremy Corbyn will today(SAT) give a speech insisting Labour would provide a “long term funding solution for the NHS”.
He is expected to say: “I don’t keep talking about the NHS because it’s in Labour’s comfort zone. I talk about the National Health Service because it’s in a danger zone.”