By Neal Adolphus
Getting an appointment with a doctor can still be difficult, as we all know. But is it just our ‘neck of the woods’ experiencing these problems or are we just like everyone else in the country? I did some research on the internet and came up with some interesting information from the British Medical Association (BMA). There are just 0.46 fully qualified GPs per 1000 patients in England – down from 0.52 in 2015 (BMA, Sept. 2020). For Shepperton that would mean a drop of just under one full time doctor (6.76 to 5.98). This September, the BMA website said, The NHS is currently experiencing some of the most severe pressures in its 70-year history. GP surgeries across the country are experiencing significant and growing strain with rising demand, practices struggling to recruit staff, and patients having to wait longer for appointments. Since 2015, the average number of patients per practice has increased by 24% whilst the num-ber of GPs has been falling. A new methodology for calculating doctor numbers suggests that the GP workforce has shrunk by 616 since September 2015, but the BMA believes the real loss is 1,904. Fewer and fewer doctors are full time GPs. They are also working in other settings, includ-ing vaccination hubs of course. A BMA survey of over 2,000 members this July found that just over half are suffering from mental health con-ditions, just under half plan to work fewer hours after the pandemic, 44% plan to work more flexibly and from home more. 16% plan to leave the NHS altogether. It seems one obvious conclusion from this is that we don’t have enough doctors, and are likely to lose even more. I find this a seriously scary prospect. It is also clear that this is a problem which will need political initiatives rather more than local management – and per-haps our suggestions and complaints should be addressed to national politicians. The govern-ment decision to put large amounts of addition-al cash into health and social care is a welcome and essential part of the solution. Long term, we need to train more of our own doctors, but this takes several years. In the meantime, are we going to attract medics from abroad to fill the gaps? Back from abroad? I couldn’t esti-mate the relative impact of Covid and Brexit on the loss of their services. Back to here and now, it looks as though we are going to have to continue to be patient patients! Latest news from Shepperton Medical Practice includes: – Flu vaccinations will be done at the hubs that were used for Covid vaccinations; – Those in care homes or housebound will be vaccinated by NICS (our federation) in the same way they delivered the Covid jabs to these patients; – Vials for blood tests are still in very short supply nationally so only urgent tests are likely for a while yet.
We hope soon to have our own PPG website, but in the meantime, please get in touch if you have any suggestions, comments or questions – Neal Adolphus, chair of SMP PPG: neal.adolphus@yahoo.co.uk.