Credit: Comedynose on Flickr
GPs’ practices in Hackney could close down unless more is done to ease the financial pressure on family doctors, according to the author of a new report into London’s NHS.
Health commentator Roy Lilley, who chaired the inquiry backed by the Unite union, warned that the capital’s “incredible demand for healthcare” was leaving inner-city surgeries at breaking point.
London’s NHS at the Crossroads
The report, entitled ‘London’s NHS at the Crossroads’, which took evidence from experts and doctors across the capital, was published last week, and called for increased investment in primary care.
“It’s clear that [general practice] services are just choc-a-bloc,” Mr Lilley told the Hackney Post. “GPs do 78% of London’s healthcare on just 9% of the budget.
“I do see a time when GPs’ practices will close down, especially in areas like Hackney, because it just won’t be financially viable for the people running them.”
Mr Lilley’s concerns were echoed by Dr Jonathon Tomlinson, a GP at the Lawson Practice in Hoxton.
“I think the gap between the availability of services and demand is only going to get wider,” Dr Tomlinson said.
“At my practice, we have patients booked every ten minutes and at least another 100 wanting to speak to a doctor every day.”
But Dr Tomlinson estimates that because of a change in the way GPs are funded, with the minimum practice income guarantee (MPIG) payment due to be phased out, his practice will be worse off by £144,000 next year.
And he warned that the problem of overwhelming demand was particularly acute in Hackney due to the borough’s high rates of deprivation and unemployment.
“Something about having nothing to do and not much money means that you worry more about your aches and pains,” Dr Tomlinson said.
“We see a significant cohort of people who spend all their time in GPs’ surgeries simply because they’re anxious and isolated.”
He added: “We’re not going to solve the problems by treating coughs and colds quicker, because ultimately that’s not why people come in.”
But Mr Lilley said the prospect of urgently needed reform was being hurt by London’s lack of a single strategic healthcare authority, which he says would unify an increasingly disparate healthcare body.
He criticised the current system of 32 Clinical Commissioning Groups, saying: “No-one is in charge of London’s healthcare, there’s no-one holding the rein. We’re working on a system that’s been in place since the days of Florence Nightingale, but there’s no single voice for reconfiguration.”
