Health bosses grilled on 'big problem' of access to GP appointments in Northumberland

Councillors have called on health bosses to find a solution to GP access issues in Northumberland.
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The call has been made as data reveals 5,660 patients in Northumberland waited more than 28 days for an appointment in December

“There’s a big problem with access and I’ve experienced it myself,” Cllr Kath Nesbitt told a meeting of Northumberland County Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee.

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"It’s upsetting and frightening and it’s a big problem that we need to put right.”

Dr Graham Syers.Dr Graham Syers.
Dr Graham Syers.

Cllr Georgina Hill added: “We all have examples of problems getting access to a GP. It’s really not very satisfactory.”

She was speaking following a presentation by Dr Graham Syers and Dr Robin Hudson of Northumberland Clinicial Commissioning Group (CCG).

Dr Syers, clinical chair of Northumberland CCG and a GP with Alnwick Medical Group, explained that increased workload coupled with GP staffing levels remaining at the same level as some years ago lay at the root of the problem.

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“We actually have a lot more older people living in Northumberland than we did 20 years ago and their needs are different,” he said.

“We also have more medical interventions than we ever had in the past. We have more drugs we can prescribe and we have more ways of helping people to live longer.

"Increased demand is also coming our way from hospitals and that’s good in that it’s better to have people looked after closer to home.

"But despite the increase in workload we have exactly the same number of GPs working.

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"If you add those two things together people will perhaps find it harder to access primary health care.”

The Covid pandemic had added to the challenge with lots of surgeries moving to remote ways of working although most practices will offer face-to-face appointments when needed.

A number of measures are being employed to ‘transform’ the service such as different appointment options, consulting by email and with more use of pictures and video.

There is also a drive ‘to make every contact count’ with greater responsibilities being taken on by receptionists to get patients into the right place as quickly as possible.

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But he conceded: “It’s undeniable there is a significant problem for some people getting through to GP surgeries and getting through on the phone. I hear it every day.

“I also hear some patients say that e-consult is fantastic so I think there is also an awful lot of good practice going on in Northumberland and people are getting their health needs met. We have to balance some of the negative we hear with the hard work being done by practices to give people what they need.”

Dr Hudson, the CCG’s medical director, revealed that there had now been more than 2,000 responses to an online public engagement survey. Practices are also being asked for their views on the best models to follow.

“Access is a complicated issue,” he said. "The difficulty is that nationally there are six different access models and we’ve got 37 practices doing a variety. We can’t mandate them to one access model but we can steer them.”

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Cllr Isabel Hunter added: “There are still a lot of folk who don’t use the internet, emails or mobile phones. It’s frustrating for them. We’ve got to find a model that works for everybody.”

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