Fewer than half of patients regularly see the GP they prefer

Traditional family doctors are becoming a thing of the past, a damning report reveals today.Only 48 per cent of patients in England are regularly able to see the GP they want to – down from 65 per cent just seven years ago, according to an official NHS survey.Politicians and doctors agree that ‘continuity of care’ – enabling patients to see the same GP at each appointment – is hugely beneficial, particularly for the elderly.  The NHS England survey of 770,000 patients between January and April also found only 33 per cent of patients were able to get an appointment the same day, compared with 36 per cent in 2012 [File photo]In a key speech 18 months ago, then health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: ‘For me, the best thing about the NHS is having a doctor who knows you and your family.’But staffing shortages, underfunding and an ageing and growing population mean it is becoming almost impossible for doctors to provide that service.The NHS England survey of 770,000 patients between January and April also found:Only 33 per cent of patients were able to get an appointment the same day, compared with 36 per cent in 2012;For 25 per cent of patients, it took a week to see a GP, up from 13 per cent seven years ago;Some 32 per cent said it was not easy to get through to their GP practice on the phone – up from 19 per cent;Only 12 per cent have booked GP appointments online, despite a big NHS push of digital services; Some 22 per cent of people who tried to contact a GP, either for themselves or someone else, found that the surgery was closed;Trust in doctors and nurses remains very high – 96 per cent said they had confidence in the most recent health professional they saw. Helen Buckingham, of the Nuffield Trust think-tank, said: ‘England is experiencing the first prolonged fall in GPs-per-person in 50 years, and the GP patient survey shows the relentless impact this is having.‘Measures of how easy it is to get an appointment are sliding across the board – fewer than a third of people who hoped to be seen on the same day actually experienced this.‘For the first time, less than half of people who have a preferred GP say they are actually able make an appointment to see them.’ Only 48 per cent of patients in England are regularly able to see the GP they want to – down from 65 per cent just seven years ago, according to an official NHS survey [File photo]Dan Wellings, senior fellow at the King’s Fund, said: ‘Once people are able to get into their local surgery their experience remains overwhelmingly positive – but getting through the door is a significant problem.’A British Medical Journal study published in 2017 found that seeing the same GP at each visit slashes the risk of being admitted to hospital with a serious illness later on.It found that patients who saw the same GP at between 40 and 70 per cent of visits had 9 per cent fewer unnecessary admissions to hospital than those who saw the same GP less than 40 per cent of the time. RELATED ARTICLES Previ

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