CAMILLA CAVENDISH: Backbone of the NHS... so why DO so many GPs avoid patients?

CAMILLA CAVENDISH: Backbone of the NHS... so why DO so many GPs avoid patients?
CAMILLA CAVENDISH: Backbone of the NHS... so why DO so many GPs avoid patients?

When Brian Mottram died from Covid-19 pneumonitis last November, he had been prescribed antibiotics by a GP over the phone. In Tameside, where Mr Mottram lived, the GP clinics had a policy of predominantly using telephone consultations rather than face-to-face or video appointments. As a result, no one realised what was wrong with him until he died.

A senior coroner has said that remote GP appointments may have been a factor in Mr Mottram's death and that of four others in Greater Manchester.

The coroner's report has bust open the anguish that has been simmering ever since the start of the pandemic: where have all the GPs gone?

Paramedics, pharmacists, ambulance drivers and care workers have dealt with people face to face throughout the pandemic. Nurses and hospital doctors have worked tirelessly on the wards. Yet many patients feel their GPs have become invisible. Despite the heroic efforts of some GPs, the service that ought to be the backbone of the NHS is crumbling.

Many patients feel their GPs have become invisible, writes Camilla Cavendish

Many patients feel their GPs have become invisible, writes Camilla Cavendish

Before the pandemic, around eight in ten patients saw their GP face to face. Now it's under six in ten, with big variations around the country. But even these figures mask the fact that many people I know have not been able to get a GP appointment of any kind.

Earlier this year, a friend of mine noticed something worrying on her shoulder. A mole she'd had for years had started bleeding. Not only did it look awful: Google made it clear it could be cancerous. 'See your GP if you notice a change in a mole,' urges the NHS website. But that turned out to be impossible.

After dialling and re-dialling her GP for days, she finally got through to a brusque receptionist who asked: 'Why are you bothering us with this?' An astonishing comment. No, she couldn't have an appointment this week. Or next week. Or it seemed, ever. Her anxiety mounting, she managed to get them to agree that she could send in a photo. The GP would look at it and call her, she was told. She never heard back. 'I've given up,' she says now. 'It hasn't got any worse, so I'm just hoping for the best.'

I hope the GP did look at the photograph, and decided that it wasn't a problem. Remote consultation is convenient for doctors, and should in theory be more efficient. It also works well for patients with busy lives and relatively straightforward conditions.

Private services like Babylon Health have taken off in recent years because they let busy urban professionals get medical advice on video when they want it.

But with more complex conditions, talking to someone online is no substitute for examining them. One GP friend of mine is certain she saved a child's life from meningitis, a few years ago, when she spotted a tiny rash behind the ear. It was a pin prick she thinks she would never have seen on video.

I could see manifest benefits for hard-pressed doctors in being able to switch to Zoom, writes Camilla Cavendish

I could see manifest benefits for hard-pressed doctors in being able to switch to Zoom, writes Camilla Cavendish

Others tell me that listening to a heartbeat, testing

read more from dailymail.....

NEXT In news vacuum, rumours and concern swirl over Catherine mogaznewsen