New report demands re-think on 48-hour access to GPs
pharmafile | September 22, 2004 | News story | |Â Â Â
The NHS Alliance and the Royal College of GPs have called for a re-think on 48-hour access targets, arguing the current system fails to meet patient needs.
The primary care representatives say the target to ensure patients can see their GPs within 48 hours of first contact is distorting the appointment system, and does not meet patient needs.
They say patients sometimes need urgent access faster than 48 hours, while others who want a regular check-up or lifestyle advice may want to book appointments several weeks in advance but some surgeries no longer accept advance appointments.
Professor David Haslam, RCGP chairman said: "More than 90% of NHS patients are treated entirely in primary care. People visit their GPs for a variety of reasons, from the worried well to people suffering serious illnesses who need urgent referrals.
"But the current target system is not delivering according to patient needs and assumes that all patients are the same. Worse still, it puts pressure on GPs to disregard their different needs."
The report, The Future of Access to General Practice-based Primary Medical Primary Care edited by Professor John Campbell of Peninsular medical school in Exeter, says GP access must meet genuine needs of patients and calls on the government to recognise the complexities in primary care and general practice, rather than treating them as a small-scale version of secondary, hospital-based care.
NHS Alliance chairman Dr Michael Dixon said: "What we are proposing will make life more difficult for NHS planners but better for patients. We have to stop behaving as if patients are all the same square-shaped pegs we can force into the same square hole. Planners should also understand that in a primary care-led NHS, where localism matters, clinicians and their patients must set the agenda."
The 48-hour access target was one of the most contentious issues in the negotiation of the new GMS contract introduced in April this year, but the government was determined to push it through, arguing that fast access to GPs was a high priority for NHS users.
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