Substitutes to be recruited to work alongside under-pressure GPs

NHS England have announced that over 20,000 paramedics, pharmacists and physiotherapists will be recruited to work alongside GPs, taking responsibility for a proportion of the 300 million bookings made each year, also providing continuing care to patients in the wider community.

The average GP appointment lasts around eight minutes, which GPs say is not long enough to allow for the complex issues an ageing population needs.

Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said “It represents the biggest boost to general practice in more than 15 years, giving patients more convenient services at their local GP surgery while breaking down the divide between family doctors and community health services.

The move has been welcomed by the Royal College of GPs, but they have warned that extra doctors are also needed, estimating that there is a current shortage of 6,000 in England.

Under the plans, there should be 22,000 additional paramedics, pharmacists and physiotherapists by 2023-24.

However, the Nuffield Trust’s Nigel Edwards, said this may be hard to achieve, adding “We need to hear more about where these staff are coming from – after all, many parts of the NHS have their own serious shortages.”

The Royal College of GPs’ Professor Helen Stokes Lampard said these new members of staff would become “high-skilled members of the GP team”, adding “Our prime objective must remain the recruitment and retention of thousands ore GPs.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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