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GP surgeries to hire 20,000 support staff as part of major overhaul
GP services are set for their biggest overhaul in more than 15 years under plans announced by NHS England.

The changes have been announced as part of a new GP contract, agreed between NHS England and the British Medical Association in a deal that will make available billions of pounds of extra investment for improved access to family doctors, expanded services at practices and longer appointments.

As part of the contract, millions of patients will be seen by an ’army‘ of pharmacists, physios and paramedics in a bid to free up GPs for patients who need them most. In the future, each GP surgery should have its own pharmacist as well as a social-prescribing link worker, who will be able to connect patients with everything from exercise classes in order to lose weight, to arts and dance groups to help with mental health problems.

By 2023-24, there should be 22,000 extra physios, pharmacists, paramedics and link workers in place.

Rachel Power, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, said:
“GP services are being redesigned to meet the needs of today’s patients, with more services provided directly through general practice. This holds a lot of promise, particularly if it can solve some of the current problems patients experience, such as highly variable waiting times for appointments, and byzantine referral systems for tests and therapies that don’t require hospital visits, such as physiotherapy and hearing tests.

“As with the long term plan as a whole, success will depend on a significant expansion of the workforce, and major changes being made over ambitiously short timescales – so its success remains to be seen, though the essential design looks good. As ever, implementation will be key. Making greater use of allied health professionals and pharmacists to free up GPs’ limited time, so they can spend longer with patients with more complex needs, seems the right call. But it must be achieved without accidentally erecting barriers to patients being able to see a GP when they need to.”

Read more about the new contract here.
Read more
Waiting times targets - how important are they to you? Our five minute survey
How important are waiting times targets to you? Would you support a relaxation of the current targets? Do these targets give you a clear expectation of what to expect from the health service? The Patients Association would like to hear your views so we can better understand how patients feel about these treatment targets.

The survey, which includes a brief overview of the current system and targets, will take around five minutes to complete, and your views will be kept anonymous.

You can complete the survey here.

Complete our survey on NHS England's consultation on low-value medicines
Thank you to everyone who has responded to our survey on NHS England's proposals to restrict access to certain treatments. If you’ve not completed the questionnaire, there’s still time to take part before the survey closes this Sunday 3 February. Your responses will help to inform our response to the consultation.

How will the restriction of these types of medicines affect you? While we’re interested in hearing about people’s experiences of rationing more generally, this consultation could be particularly relevant to people in England who:
  • Have type 2 diabetes
  • Take medicine for their heart rhythm
  • Use bath or shower preparations for their skin conditions.
You can complete the survey here – it should take around ten minutes to do so. You can also share your views directly with NHS England here.
 
During the consultation period a range of events organised by NHS England will be taking place to gather feedback on the proposals – you can register for these here. The meetings include face to face events and webinars (online meetings):
 
Face to face consultation meetings:  Webinar (online meetings) 
14 February 2019, 1:00 – 2:00pm: Booking can be made here
Have your say
Speaking up for patients
Observer: Ambulance and A&E delays are putting patients ‘at risk’
Ambulance hold-ups, staff shortages and the difficulty of getting speedy A&E care have contributed to “numerous” deaths and may claim more lives, according to a coroner in Wales.

Lucy Watson, Chair of the Patients Association, said:
“We are profoundly concerned that people with life-threatening medical needs are facing unacceptably long waits. Ambulance services must respond in a timely and effective way as this can be literally a matter of life or death. Self-evidently, delays of many, many hours are completely unacceptable and will put patients’ lives at risk.

“It is particularly concerning that we are seeing cases that involve elderly people whose safety and quality of life depend upon being seen to by the emergency services as quickly as possible. It cannot be remotely acceptable that NHS services have hit a low as bad as this.” 
Read more
The Times: Over 150 NHS staff accused of snooping on patients’ records.
More than 150 NHS staff have been investigated in the past 16 months for reading patient records without an obvious reason. The ICO has investigated 155 staff leading to seven prosecutions, according to data released under freedom of information laws.

John Kell, Head of Policy at the Patients Association, said:
“The sharing of patients’ information between care institutions is essential to delivering joined-up care that works for the patient. At the same time, patients and the public must feel confident that their data will be used appropriately and kept secure. All organisations that use data must have policies that ensure data is never accessed or used inappropriately, and when those processes are not adhered to the NHS and if necessary the Information Commissioner’s Office, must investigate and secure redress for the patient.”
Read more (£)
Mail Online: UK has fewer GPs per person than Romania, Malta and Estonia.
Based on the EU’s 2016 figures, Britain was ranked 16th out of 21 countries for family doctors with just 76 per 100,000 inhabitants. Portugal had more than three times as many GPs than the UK, topping the list with its 253 general practitioners per 100,000.

John Kell, Head of Policy at the Patients Association, said:
“International comparisons between health services are notoriously tricky, and the one that matters is the benefit that the service brings to patients. The UK has historically tended to have fewer GPs per head than other countries in western Europe. But it has also had lower levels of unmet need in primary care than most European countries, and far less variation on access to care based on income than nearly all others. This suggests a fundamental efficiency in how the NHS operates, despite how it can sometimes appear to patients.

“But we can’t run the NHS more and more ‘hot’ exponentially – we now seem to have reached the point where relatively low numbers of GPs per head are not an efficiency, but a looming crisis. The forthcoming workforce strategy must assure the NHS of the clinicians and professionals it needs if it is to have any chance of delivering the Long Term Plan.” 
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From the helpline: quality of care in care homes
This week we were contacted by Laura*, who got in touch with a distressing example of poor care in a care home. Laura was seeking advice on the complaints process after her grandfather, who was admitted to a care home for rehabilitation after losing muscle strength in his legs, was poorly treated.

Laura reported the following concerns about her grandfather’s care to our helpline adviser:
  • That her grandfather had not received any rehabilitation despite being in the care home for over five weeks
  • Upon taking her grandfather’s clothes home to wash, Laura’s family discovered unexplained blood in his pants and faeces in his underwear
  • Concerns that her grandfather had lost weight and that he had not been eating.
Laura also stated that when the family raised concerns with a nurse about her grandfather’s condition, the nurse responded in the presence of the patient by saying his conduct had been very bad. The family thought the nature of this response was inappropriate.

We take thousands of calls each year to our helpline but this was a particularly distressing case. Our helpline adviser recommended that Laura should report her concerns and discuss her grandfather’s care and treatment plan with the senior doctor at the care home. We gave Laura advice on how to approach this conversation with the doctor and suggested she take a family member or friend with her for support. We also suggested making a note of action points and keeping in touch regularly with the senior doctor to monitor progress.

Our adviser provided Laura with information on the complaints process and directed the caller to the various complaints resources on our website. We also recommended that Laura share her experiences with the Care Quality Commission, who may visit the healthcare provider in order to better understand why things are going wrong, and who also have the authority to ensure that changes are implemented.

We asked Laura to keep us updated with developments and to get in touch with us if she required any more information. If you need health or care advice, call 0208 423 8999 between 9.30 and 5pm on weekdays, or email helpline@patients-association.com

*Name has been changed.
Our helpline
Keep warm, keep well
Heavy snow and freezing temperatures have affected parts of the UK over the last few days, and there’s no end in sight to the cold weather. When the temperature drops to below 8°C, some people are at increased risk of:
  • heart attack
  • stroke
  • flu
  • pneumonia
  • falls and injuries
  • hypothermia
Cold weather can also affect people with mental health conditions, such as depression and dementia. In this cold and freezing weather, please keep an eye on friends, family and neighbours who may be vulnerable when temperatures drop.
 
If you need medical advice, you can speak to a pharmacist or contact NHS 111.
 
The Met Office provides weather forecasts on radio and TV, so listen in to these bulletins regularly to keep up-to-date with the weather. You can also visit the Met Office website or check the Met Office Twitter feed.

Read more about how to keep yourself well and your home warm during winter here.
Met Office website
NHS App
After successful testing with more than 3,000 patients across 30 GP practices in England, the NHS App has started its public rollout. The NHS App provides a simple and secure way for patients aged 13 or over to access a range of healthcare services on their smartphone or tablet, and is expected to be fully rolled out to practices and patients by July 2019. The App is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Stores, with a web based version due to launch in the coming months. 
Find out more
NHS Long Term Plan: audio and easy read versions
Audio and easy read versions of the NHS Long Term Plan are available here.
 
Read more
What our team is reading this week
Health screening 'not meeting targets', report finds
'Trauma packs' being stockpiled in UK over fears of no-deal Brexit
Working 9 to 5: Poppy Jaman on mental health and the work–life balance (podcast)
‘Changes mean a historic shift in general practice’
England will have no new cases of HIV by 2030, Health Secretary says

About Us

Our vision is that health and social care will be delivered in a way that meets every person’s health and social care needs.

Our mission is to give effect to the patient voice, to improve patient experience and support people to engage fully in their own care. Find out more about our values on our website. 
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The Patients Association is a registered charity in England and Wales (1006733).  A company limited by guarantee.  Registered company in England and Wales (02620761)
Registered address:  P Block, Northwick Park Hospital, The North West Hospitals NHS Trust, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 3YJ