GP services are currently under strain, and one in ten patients who called a GP practice were left unable to get an appointment. This amounted to 5 million people in October 22. This puts strain on A+Es, where people turn up with issues that could have been dealt with by the GP.

Likewise, this is putting strain on the Ambulance service, and response times are increased. Patients are waiting longer for the Ambulance to arrive, sometimes with fatal consequences.

Demand for GPs is very high, as they re-establish face to face Consulting and deal with the back log of problems not dealt with during the Covid lockdown. It’s not helped by high levels of immigration which have given them millions of extra people to treat. The GP service has suffered from lack of support from Government, the Integrated Care Board (ICBs) (previously known as the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and the Media over the last 10 years.

• Requests for extra staffing and new premises have been refused.
• GP practices have been allowed to close.
• The number of full-time equivalent GPs is down.
• CCGs seemed ‘against’ small practices and encouraged mergers, which left local people further to travel. In many cases the bigger practices can’t cope with the extra patients.

GPs feel stressed and more should be done to support them. We urgently need to train more Doctors, retain them in the NHS and make General practice an attractive option.

Hospitals need to be put back under the control of Doctors and Nurses, not controlled by an army of Administrators.

We should re-introduce the right for patients to be able to make future Routine appointments at a time that suits them . In many areas this is banned, and they are told ’It’s same day only’ .

We will retain more UK trained Doctors by waiving tuition fees for Doctors who continue to work in the NHS.

We also need to remove the cap on GP pensions and reward those who want to work harder and longer, not penalise them.

The BMA recently advised ‘all doctors to retire at 59 otherwise they would lose money’.

Older Doctors who want to continue working should be encouraged and supported.

Dr. Steven Bick

UK independence Party – Spokesman for Health