NHS election pledges 'unclear'
1 Apr 2015
Pledges made by both the Conservative and Labour parties to improve access to primary care are unclear, according to researchers.
The researchers, commenting in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), also said the pledges are unlikely to be achieved within a five-year parliamentary term.
The Labour Party, which interestingly has figures emblazoned across its website that suggest last week 22,937 people waited more than four hours in A&E before seeing a doctor, has pledged to recruit 8,000 new GPs and plans to reintroduce their guarantee of an appointment within 48 hours.
“Both parties have made bold promises about access to GP services, but the evidence behind their pledges is lacking
NIHR research fellow Thomas Cowling
According to the researchers, however, this target was far from being achieved under the last Labour government, with only 81% of patients able to see a GP within two weekdays in 2009-10.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party has pledged to recruit an additional 5,000 GPs, while promising that if re-elected, patients in England will be able to able to see a GP between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week - a policy that has already been piloted in 14% of GP practices.
The pledges, however, have been met with a degree of scepticism from academics and industry experts.
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) doctoral research fellow Thomas Cowling said: “Both parties have made bold promises about access to GP services, but the evidence behind their pledges is lacking.
“It’s important that policies like extended access are independently evaluated before being implemented more widely.
Cowling also said the NHS should more closely follow research that evaluates the new types of appointments that have been proposed to increase GP capacity, such as consultations and triage by phone or online.
“I also suggest looking at ways to reduce demand for GP services, like providing pharmacist-led minor illness services, and investing in public health programmes that could reduce primary care demand in the long run through improving the population’s health, which is the most important thing,” he said.
“Anyone expecting a huge injection of resources to support the development of seven-day services is likely to be disappointed
BMA chairman Mark Porter
Data taken from the BMJ article suggests the largest increase in the GP workforce over any previous five-year period was 5,414, from 2004 to 2009.
Meanwhile, a GP Taskforce report published last year identified major recruitment and retention problems that need to be tackled to increase GP numbers, including a shortage of GP training posts.
However, Mark Porter, council chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA), said in a blog post last week that “anyone expecting a huge injection of resources to support the development of seven-day services is likely to be disappointed, and even if the extra money was available there would be other areas where it was more urgently needed”.
“And politicians who use macho posturing as if it alone will magically stretch five days of NHS resources across seven and negate the problem of doctors working unsafe hours are, to quote the BMA’s campaign, simply playing games,” Porter said.
