Boris Johnson last night piled pressure on GPs to offer more in-person consultations.
His spokesman said every patient had the right to a face-to-face appointment if they wanted one.
A day after the Mail launched a campaign to improve access to family doctors, Downing Street said: ‘The public rightly may choose to want to see their GP face to face – and GP practices should be making that facility available to their patients.’
Charities and politicians have been clamouring for the Prime Minister to act amid fears that cancers and other serious health conditions are being missed in remote consultations.
Just 57 per cent of GP appointments are now in person compared with 80 per cent before the pandemic.
‘The relationship between the GP and his or her patient really depends on face-to-face consultation,’ said Tory former health secretary Kenneth Clarke.
‘I find it difficult to see how anyone can diagnose totally accurately symptoms described over the telephone.
'I think face-to-face appointments should go back to pre-pandemic levels and I don’t see why they can’t.’
A day after the Mail launched a campaign to improve access to family doctors, Downing Street said: ‘The public rightly may choose to want to see their GP face to face – and GP practices should be making that facility available to their patients.’
‘The relationship between the GP and his or her patient really depends on face-to-face consultation,’ said Tory former health secretary Kenneth Clarke. ‘I find it difficult to see how anyone can diagnose totally accurately symptoms described over the telephone
Just 57 per cent of GP appointments are now in person compared with 80 per cent before the pandemic
As the Mail’s campaign to restore in-person appointments to normal levels gathered momentum:
A study found patients given telephone appointments were more likely to end up in A&E In one in five areas, face-to-face appointment rates are even lower than in January Private providers reported a rise in numbers paying for face-to-face access More stories emerged of patients developing serious conditions after struggling to see a GP The BMA, the trade union for doctors, issued a robust statement insisting GPs were seeing millions of patients face to face every weekDoctors say telephone and video appointments allow them to get through more patients.
But critics believe the pendulum has swung too far and that doctors are more likely to miss the signs of a more serious illness if they don’t see someone in the flesh.
Pressed on the issue yesterday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘The NHS has been clear to every GP practice that they must provide face-to-face appointments, and we fully support that
Caroline Abrahams of the charity Age UK said older people were struggling with telephone triage. She added: ‘We urge NHS England to challenge and support GP practices that have moved too far, too fast, in their use of technology.’
Pressed on the issue yesterday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘The NHS has been clear to every GP practice that they must provide face-to-face appointments, and we fully support that.
‘GPs throughout the pandemic have worked hard to see patients and appointment numbers have returned to pre-pandemic levels.
'It’s right that the public expect to be able to see their GP in person, if needed.’
Although the comments from Downing Street are a positive step, there has been no commitment to take action.
There have been calls to change the way GP practices are funded to incentivise doctors to see patients face to face.
The pressure group Silver Voices is campaigning for a statutory duty to be placed on them to hold in-person surgeries if patients want them.
Caroline Abrahams of the charity Age UK said older people were struggling with telephone triage.
She added: ‘We urge NHS England to challenge and support GP practices that have moved too far, too fast, in their use of technology.’
The BMA said: ‘The move to an initial telephone consultation to assess a patient’s needs was, and is, in line with NHS England’s and the Government’s guidance.
'Many patients have really appreciated the benefit of alternative types of consultations, which can then be followed by a face-to-face appointment if needs be.’
Three case studies reveal to the Mail how they were affected by GPs reluctance to meet face to face
I was fobbed off... then found I had a tumour
A new mum who suspected she had bowel cancer has told how she was ‘fobbed off’ by her doctor for months – before belatedly being diagnosed with the disease.
It then took a year before marketing worker Jenny Carter had surgery to remove a tumour.
The 37-year-old initially tried to get a face-to-face appointment in March last year when she was three months’ pregnant with her first child.
As her mother Christina was seriously ill with bowel cancer and she had an uncle suffering with the disease, she feared the worst when she experienced bleeding.
But her GP told her over the phone that she was too young to have bowel cancer and without seeing her, diagnosed piles – which is common in pregnant women.
The surgery had refused an appointment in person but in July 2020 agreed for her to pick up a stool-sampling kit.
When her sample was lost, Miss Carter, of Hornchurch, Essex, switched GPs – calling it ‘the last straw’.
Jenny Carter (pictured with daughter Penelope) was 'fobbed off' by doctors for months before being belatedly diagnosed and undergoing surgery to remove a tumour a year later. The 37-year-old initially tried to get a face-to-face appointment in March last year when she was three months’ pregnant with her first child.
Her daughter Penelope was born two months later and her mother died in November from the bowel cancer.
Although Miss Carter’s new doctor immediately took her concerns seriously, the pandemic backlog meant she could not have a colonoscopy until as late as February this year – almost a year after she first contacted her previous GP.
Medics found a malignant growth and the next month she had a tumour removed, which left her needing a life-altering stoma to process her waste.
She fears that if she had been she been examined in person a year earlier, she may have
