London has become the first UK region to offer access to out-of-hour GP services, including over the weekend and bank holidays, equating to 75,000 extra appointments each month.
GP services are on the “brink of collapse” because of underfunding and overstretched staff, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the British Medical Association GP committee chair has warned.
GP practices are “in crisis” with demand for consultations growing at three times the rate of increase in the number of family doctors, according to the King’s Fund.
Scottish ministers are being warned of a mounting crisis in health provision after new figures showed the number of out-of-hours GP consultations last year to be approaching a million.
GPs are crucial to plans set out in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View. They must work together to ensure service changes can be brought to fruition.
There has been a decline in the number of GP surgeries offering evening and weekend appointments over the last five years, according to Labour’s health spokesman Andy Burnham.
General practice is in need of both more money and significant reform if it is to meet the challenge set out by NHS England in its Five Year Forward View, according to the Nuffield Trust.
