Fear patients are being put at risk because vital money is not being invested in GPs

October 6, 2016

Chair of Royal College of GPs: Up to £800m earmarked for practices is used to bail out debt-ridden hospitals
Dr Maureen Baker will warn that without this money, crisis-hit surgeries won’t be able to hire extra staff
Patients routinely have to wait three weeks for an appointment

Sophie Borland, Health Editor For The Daily Mail

Published:
19:48 EST, 5 October 2016

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Updated:
02:49 EST, 6 October 2016

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Patients are at risk from GP errors because vital NHS cash is not being invested into surgeries, a doctors’ leader will warn today

Patients are at risk from GP errors because vital NHS cash is not being invested into surgeries, a doctors’ leader will warn today.

Dr Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of GPs, will say that up to £800million earmarked for practices is instead being used to bail out debt-ridden hospitals.

She will warn that without this money, crisis-hit surgeries will be unable to hire extra staff meaning doctors will be prone to making mistakes.

Waits for appointment times will become even longer because practices will not have enough doctors to meet the needs of the rising and aging population, she will say.

Addressing 1,600 GPs at their annual conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Dr Baker will warn of a ‘serious threat to patient safety’.

She will describe the situation as a ‘national disgrace’ and say the lack of funds ‘rings alarm bells’.

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GP surgeries across England are in crisis as they are struggling to cope with the pressures of migration, the aging population and a national shortage of family doctors.

Patients routinely have to wait three weeks for an appointment and many also struggle to even get through to surgeries on the phone.

In April, the head of the NHS Simon Stevens promised to address the pressures by giving practices an additional £2.4 billion of funding over the next five years.

But an analysis by the RCGP has found that at least £760 million of this money won’t go to surgeries, but will instead be diverted to hospitals and community care.

Waits for appointment times will become even longer because practices will not have enough doctors to meet the needs of the rising and aging population, she will say. Posed by models

The money is meant to be allocated to surgeries by 209 local health boards called Clinical Commissioning Group.

But the RCGP have scrutinised their financial strategies for the next five years – known as Sustainability and Transformation Plans – and found that very little of this money is going to general practice.

Furthermore, they claim that CCGs are sitting on a total of £33 million of this year’s budget which should have gone to CCGs.

The College has analysed all CCG budgets and found that many are not giving surgeries all the money they have been allocated.

Added together, the RCGP estimate that surgeries will lose out on almost £800 million of NHS cash by 2020/21.

Dr Baker will say: ‘When we hear of underspends, it rings alarm bells as we could be putting that money to excellent use and providing care for our patients.

‘Our service is under considerable pressure – our patients are having to wait longer and longer to see a GP, and GPs are seeing more and more patients every day.

‘It’s OK every now and again to have a really busy day, but when this becomes the norm, it takes its toll and we know that GPs are worried about making errors because they are so overwhelmed with work.

‘This is a serious threat to patient safety.

‘The failure to spend money earmarked for general practice on general practice is a national disgrace.

‘This is not loose change down the back of a sofa.’

GP services usually get about 8 per cent of the NHS’s budget a year – about £9 billion.

If the RCGP’s calculations are correct, they stand to lose out on a significant proportion of their allocated cash.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the BMA’s GP committee said: ‘General practice is at breaking point.

‘Many local GP surgeries are struggling to provide even basic care to their patients as they face a climate of shrinking budgets, staff shortages and rising workload.’