Seeing a GP becoming too difficult for most

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMar 5 2018

A new poll has found that getting to see a General Practitioner (GP) is getting too difficult for most of the general population and thus many are going without a GP visit.

According to the poll conducted by Octopus Healthcare, one third of the population (36 percent) have said that they had to make do without a GP visit since getting an appointment proved to be too difficult over the past 12 months. Most of them could not get to the clinics on phone. The Censuswide poll found that 19 percent (one on five) individuals had to give up their GP visits more than once over the past one year because they could not reach the clinics. The survey was conducted among a population of nearly 2000 individuals aged 16 years and above in the United Kingdom.

According to Octopus Healthcare chief executive Benjamin Davis, The GP practices all over and across the country are meeting the “diverse” needs of the population and they are doing a “fantastic job”. Their work however is a challenge given the population demand. He added that millions of people have to “go without seeing their GP” because of their inability to get an appointment. “This is just one of a complex set of pressures on our health system; we need innovative solutions to fix the problem,” he said. He explained that one of the solutions for this could be the amalgamation of GP practices at a local setting. This would create large practices he said and make it more affordable for the practices to retain technical and secretarial staff and use newer technologies to book patients for their appointments. This could serve to hasten waiting lists and also improve quality and range of services provided by the GPs.

Octopus Healthcare is a part of the Octopus Group that manages healthcare properties in large areas over UK and Ireland. They work in collaboration with the NHS and are currently landowners of nearly 150 medical centres. While the poll results are clear about the unmet needs of the population regarding GP services, some experts believe, it could be a marketing ploy for Octopus Healthcare. NHS England for example has called the study “statistically insignificant”.