Thérèse Coffey will on Thursday set out a new “expectation” that everyone seeking a doctor’s appointment should get an appointment within 14 days, as she outlines a major plan to tackle the growing NHS crisis. The push to speed up patient access to GP care in England should also mean more patients with pressing medical concerns turn up on the day they seek a consultation, he will tell MPs. But the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) accused Coffey – who is also deputy prime minister – of burdening already hard-pressed GP surgeries with new targets that will not improve care. Professor Martin Marshall, president of the college, said seven out of eight patients – 85% – had already seen a GP within two weeks. Additionally, 44% were seen the same day they sought medical attention, he added. “Cutting down a struggling service with more expectations, without a plan for how to deliver them, will only serve to add to the intense workload and workforce pressures our doctors and teams face, while also having minimal impact on care that patients receive’. Marshall said. However, Coffey cannot force GPs to limit waiting times to two weeks, the Guardian understands. This would require a renegotiation by the Department of Health and Social Care of the GP contract agreed each year with the British Medical Association. Coffey will set out more details of her ambition when she unveils what she calls “Our Plan for Patients” on Thursday, in her first major appearance since becoming health and social care secretary in Liz Truss’s government on September 6 . She will also visit a GP surgery and take the government’s morning media round to publicize its plan, which is intended to assuage growing public dissatisfaction with the difficulty many patients face when trying to quickly see a family member. doctor. Coffey will also present plans for: Free up 3 million GP appointments a year from pharmacists, physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals, many of whom work in surgeries and see more patients. Fund better cloud-based phone systems for practices that help callers get through faster. Increase the number of people with minor conditions seeing pharmacists on the streets. Force all GP surgeries to publish appointment data – a move the RCGP has warned could lead to a crude ‘league table’ of performance. Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, reminded Coffey that the last Labor government had given patients the right to see a GP within 48 hours – “until the Conservatives took it away”. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “The Conservatives promising to solve the difficulties patients face in getting a doctor’s appointment are like arsonists promising to put out the fire,” he added. Streeting also said the Tories’ forthcoming NHS plan would do little to address a shortage of doctors, nurses and care workers that is fueling delays and workforce discontent. He said NHS staff were crying out for “a credible workforce plan. They know it won’t be delivered overnight. But right now, we don’t see any sign of that long-term thinking.” Beccy Baird, senior fellow at the King’s Fund health thinktank, warned that the two-week maximum waiting time risked being seen as “a quick fix” to the deep-rooted problems affecting general practice, especially the shrinking number of full-time doctors . “Access to GPs is an issue for patients, but targets are not the answer. Having an access target will not in itself entice more GPs or more capacity into the system, which is really needed. Only a long-term GP workforce plan will do that.” Helen Buckingham, director of strategy at the Nuffield Trust, said: “Committing to guaranteeing an appointment within two weeks may be good policy, but it risks applying a one-size-fits-all solution to a much more complex picture. The government should step back from micromanaging appointment timetables and instead focus on the outcomes they want to see in primary care.’ Sources say Coffey may also announce plans to eliminate or even abolish the duties of hospital A&E units to treat and admit, discharge or transfer patients within four hours. But a senior NHS executive warned it would spark “an uproar” if it abandoned the health service’s best-known performance target, which hospitals have been unable to meet for years. The NHS Confederation, which represents NHS care providers in England, urged Coffey to increase funding for social care. This would help get many of the 13,000 “delayed discharge” patients out of hospital – who are medically fit to leave but cannot receive social care – and help avoid facing a “health emergency this winter”, it said. .
