Essex health body calls for changes to GP booking system

GP using a home video link to asses a patient during the pandemic

The morning phone rush for appointments with doctors is a "warped system" that has to change, a health body has heard.

Essex County Council's health scrutiny committee was told demand for a GP had increased significantly since the pandemic ended.

William Guy, director of primary care for Mid and South Essex, said the situation was "challenging".

In Mid and South Essex, an extra 314,000 appointments were made between 2021 and 2022, the committee was told.

In north east Essex, an extra 83,000 patients were seen in that time and in west Essex, an additional 102,000 appointments were undertaken compared to 2019 and 2020.

"It is challenging for our population to get access to primary care and I think we need to acknowledge that that is the situation," said Mr Guy.

"There are different perceptions as to why that's happening.

"I think what we're trying to demonstrate is that it is largely driven by demand rather than by GPs shutting their doors, as is kind of commonly perceived in some areas."

The stress on GPs services had also led to a sharp decrease in face-to-face appointments - from 83% during the pandemic to 65% in the past year.

Telephone appointments rose from 11% to 30% during that time, reported the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The committee was told the GP workforce has remained relatively stable in west, mid and south Essex and had expanded in north east Essex.

But Mr Guy said increases in demand needed to be met with changes in the way people get appointments - specifically the rush in the morning when the appointment telephone lines open.

He said: "It will take time to do that but we've got to move away from everybody presenting at 08:00 or we'll never be able to tackle demand at that point.

"Even if we had lots more call handlers it would still be a very warped system to try to manage."