Difficulties in getting a GP appointment have impacts across the NHS
We in the UK used to see the National Health Service (NHS) as a source of pride. It is now feels more like a source of danger. Leaked data suggest that, in one week in December, over 50,000 sick people in England waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from accident-and-emergency (A&E) departments. The Economist’s mortality model echoes the warnings from emergency doctors: around one in four excess deaths in recent months is attributable to delays in emergency care.
The scenes in A&E are just the most alarming symptoms of a health-care system that is failing. Downstream, one in seven patients is ready to leave the wards, which would free up beds for those clamouring to get in, but they would have no one to look after them if they were released from hospital. The government’s proposed solution—an extra £200m to block-book places in private care homes—seems sensible. But it will take more than that to deal with the deeper problem: a chronic shortage of staff.
Upstream, the same issue bedevils general practice, the network of family doctors where many of the pressures on the NHS first build. General practitioners (GPs) are conventionally a patient’s first and most frequent point of contact with Britain’s health-care professionals. But the system is buckling. Demand is rising—owing partly to a backlog in cases from the pandemic and partly to an increase in patients with complex, chronic diseases. And the number of doctors is dwindling, as GPs retire early, emigrate or reduce their hours. There are 15% more junior doctors in hospitals than there were in 2019, but 2% fewer full-time family doctors (albeit more practice staff). As a result, millions are not getting the care they need. Many turn directly to the hospitals. Polling shows that one in five people who cannot see their family doctor goes to A&E instead. Many simply get sicker.
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