Professor Martin Marshall, President of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), will say that the relationship of trust between family doctors and patients is the most “powerful intervention” to provide effective, high-quality care, as they enhance patient satisfaction and health effects and reduce use of hospital services. But in a keynote address at the college’s annual conference, Marshall will warn that continuing treatment is almost impossible to provide to the NHS amid growing demand and shrinking doctors, in what he describes as the “most worrying” crisis of recent decades “. . There are growing concerns about the NHS ‘ability to meet record waiting lists, with 6.5 million patients waiting for care in the UK alone. Earlier this month, Sajid Javid, the health secretary, acknowledged that the current GP care model was “not working”, but insisted there would be no more money for health care. Marshall’s intervention comes after general practitioners in England threatened on Tuesday that they would take action on a contract that forces them to offer appointments on evenings and weekends. Doctors at the British Medical Association’s (BMA) annual conference in Brighton called on union leaders to act on the 2021 ballot paper and “organize opposition” to the convention, “including industrial action if necessary”. General practitioners are unlikely to stop providing emergency and urgent care, but they could refuse to perform other routine tasks or reduce their hours. At the RCGP conference in London, Marshall will tell delegates that due to increased workload and fewer staff, GPs no longer have time to properly evaluate patients, with 65% of safety warnings at risk due to very short appointment, according to recent research commissioned by the college. Only 39% of respondents said they were able to provide the follow-up care their patients needed – up from 60% two years ago. The findings are supported by a separate study published today. A survey by Queen Mary University of London of 1 million NHS patients found that half (52%) regularly see the same GP despite increasing evidence of improved clinical outcomes. The research found that the patients who benefit most from visiting the same doctor are those with long-term health conditions and people who often visit a doctor’s office. However, Marshall will tell delegates that the current state of general practice in the UK “does not favor” “relationship building”, adding: “On average there are three problems in a 9.8 minute consultation – the second shortest consultation in Europe after Germany. “At a time when the workload is increasing and the size of the GP workforce is shrinking, as is the case in the UK, this may require redesigning our way of working, with a shift from the GP-as-all-things-to- all in a more focused approach, where we add value as members of a wider professional team – and continuity of care is one of those areas ”. Marshall will suggest that follow-up treatment may still be provided, but perhaps not in the way it was before. “Continuity of care is a key feature of family practice, but doctors should not have a monopoly on its delivery,” he said, citing examples where good patient relationships are maintained by more than one clinician, such as nurses or physiotherapists. . Meanwhile, Tony Blair is urging the UK health service today to radically reform its operation in order to remain viable, saying “the NHS is a service, not a religion”. A new report from the former prime minister’s Institute for Global Change warns that the NHS as a whole is in danger of following the same path as dentistry, as patients are unable to receive the care they need. In his foreword, Mr Blair emphasized the need to focus on security, and said that it was even more important now with the crisis over cash. “However, the NHS envisioned by Sir William Beveridge and Aneurin Bevan – a centrally controlled ‘one size fits all’ service that focuses on how we treat sick people – no longer meets the demands of today. “The way the NHS is founded and organized should not and cannot be a matter of belief, but of practicality. “As it stands at the moment, the NHS may not be the service we need now.” NHS ministers and bosses need to embrace technology and innovation such as artificial intelligence on a much larger scale, focus more on disease prevention and enable the 42 new “integrated care systems” – groupings of NHS players starting Friday – freedom from central control to decide how to provide better healthcare in their area, the report said. Ministers will outline plans Wednesday for a huge increase in the number of self-monitoring patients being treated in “virtual wards” at home in a bid to ease pressure from overcrowded hospitals.
