Staff at Bourne Galletly Practice discuss issues affecting patients, GPs and the wider NHS

Many patients have experienced frustration when trying to contact their GP surgery.

Long telephone queues and a lack of appointment slots are often mentioned, and it’s an issue that is not just happening at one or two practices.

We asked staff at Bourne Galletly Practice in North Road, Bourne for their thoughts on where the problem lies.

by Dr Antony Wright, Dr Paul Cregor, Ian Robinson, Dr Rebecca Mitchell and Dr Richard Coates

Unfortunately, there isn’t one easy answer here and the problem is not just for our patients and in our local area, this is a national crisis.

We have every sympathy with patients who feel they are struggling. As patients and parents ourselves we also find accessing healthcare very difficult at times.

However, we need to consider that there is a national NHS crisis, and we are trying to manage during very difficult times.

Over the past couple of years we have experienced all of the same problems other GP surgeries have also faced – there is a national shortage of GPs, current GPs are being supported by the British Medical Association (BMA) and given advice on how to keep themselves well during such pressured times.

The website https://tinyurl.com/GPpressures gives a flavour of what is happening, but in summary GPs are leaving the profession, GP growth has not happened, government promises to recruit have failed and, as a result, our working day is becoming harder and harder.

Because of this, many GPs are making the decision to work fewer days, fewer hours in a day, or are choosing to work as locum GPs to reduce stress and workload – or have simply left the profession all together.

There is a real feeling of “I cannot continue to break myself to try to fix a broken system” and it is very sad to see.

It isn’t just general practice that is struggling. Hospitals are also struggling as a result of a very unhappy workforce – both junior doctors and consultants.

Strikes, cancelled appointments and surgeries, waiting lists of over 12 months to see a specialist and other such problems all being reported nationally.

All of these problems have a significant knock-on effect for general practice, with patients we have referred for specialist help returning to us because they remain unwell.

More patients are being advised to attend emergency departments by 111 and the workload back to the GP with suggested treatment plans or referrals is excessively high.

There are currently more than 7.5 million patients on hospital waiting lists in the UK, all seeking help from their GP to manage their symptoms while they wait.

Long waiting lists mean that hospitals are using methods to reduce the list size – including texting patients to see if they still need their appointment. If they don’t reply within five days, they are removed from the waiting list. patients then call their GP to reinstate their referral.

Under ‘normal’ circumstances 80 per cent of all activity in the NHS is within primary care, but the current workload due to difficulties for patients within secondary care means this additional workload is being repeated time and again.

Despite all of this, at our practice we have managed to maintain the best service we can, providing more than 2,300 appointments per week, trying to make sure patients can either book to speak to us using our website, the NHS app, or by calling us.

We offer 10-minute appointments, which are shorter than the BMA recommends, so that we help as many people as possible and offer more appointments per GP per day than the BMA recommends.

This is something we are all happy to do – to help as many people as possible – but it is becoming more and more demoralising, seeing people are unhappy with our efforts.

To protect the physical and mental health of our doctors and sustain the existing workforce, we have put into place an alert system which mirrors that of secondary care. When we reach capacity, we signpost patients to 111 so that they can be triaged safely.

This is in line with the contract imposed upon general practice by the current Government, despite concerns raised by the BMA. We know this isn’t ideal, but we simply cannot offer the service we did before because of the reasons above.

We have consistently advertised for new GPs and are delighted to announce that we have two new GPs starting in the next few months, with a third one starting in 2024. We feel really positive about this because they are all very good, energetic and passionate doctors.

We already have a very low number of patients per GP in comparison with local and national figures, meaning that the admin workload for new GPs joining us will be manageable.

This will hopefully make Galletly Practice a place where GPs want to continue to work. We are a very strong team; we look after each other and all of our team members with patient care being our main focus.

We have plans to make some changes to our system to make it easier to book an appointment to speak to a GP, but these plans are in their infancy, and we are consulting with our patient services team and plan on using their suggestions to improve our service.

It would be unfair to publicise half-cooked plans at this stage and we should also say that again within the currently imposed directions of the government we will have to meet indicators that, in ours and the BMA opinion, do not best serve our patients.

It is really concerning that patients are affected by the problems all GPs face and we are concerned that further ongoing criticism of general practice will do nothing to bolster an already demoralised and depleted workforce.

We continue to strive to adapt and provide the best service that we can with the resources available to us, working with our patient participation group and the patient voice.

What would really help us all is if a more positive approach could be taken to encourage patients into challenging the government into meaningful, positive and genuine action to address the crisis facing general practice.

As already mentioned, general practice is the backbone of the NHS with 80 per cent of all activity taking place therein.

If this service is not supported by Government and patients alike it will be lost forever, leading to the end of the NHS as we know it.

We should all be writing to our MPs about the problems we face to help to improve our communities. Together we could really make a change.

To contact your MP with your thoughts about the NHS locally, write to MP Gareth Davies (Stamford, Bourne and Grantham – Con) by emailing gareth.davies.mp@parliament.uk, or to Alicia Kearns (Rutland – Con) alicia.kearns.mp@parliament.uk. Both can be contacted by post by addressing the letter to the specific MP at House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.