#Spytec gps app login professional#

If one in six appointments turns out not to need professional attention, surely that is a small price to pay, compared with the risk of overlooking a fatal condition?

Their failure to examine a patient, or to pick up potentially serious symptoms, can have life-or-death consequences. As gatekeepers to the health service, with the power to decide whether a patient can have access to prescribed medication, specialist advice or hospital treatment, GPs have a massive responsibility. But the emphasis on efficiency should not be allowed to compromise patient safety. Of course it makes sense to try to ensure that GPs use their time efficiently, and that people are directed to the right service. NHS England seems to have decided that this is the only way forward, regardless of patient satisfaction. It also heralded the replacement of face-to-face appointments with telephone consultations, and expanded the role of GP receptionists in quizzing patients, in an attempt to keep the pressure off GPs. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in preventable deaths from illnesses that went untreated. Not only are you a potential burden on an overstretched NHS, you are also putting yourself at risk of infection.

The message throughout the pandemic was clear: keep away from the doctor if at all possible. Last year more than a third of all cancer sufferers were only diagnosed when they arrived at A&E, by which time they were much less likely to survive the disease.Īmong the many dismal legacies of Covid has been a reluctance to seek out healthcare. But the NHS should be much more concerned that too many sick people are not being seen by their GP in the first place and their lives are being put at risk. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s no doubt possible to conclude that some GP appointments are unnecessary. Most of us are left asking: how on earth did these people with apparently trivial problems manage to get that appointment? Are they all fantasists who invented life-threatening symptoms? Or are they simply patients who thought that their symptoms should be checked out by a professional but were then reassured to find that their problem was capable of being remedied by a nurse or pharmacist? This is one of the early findings from the “National General Practice Improvement Programme”, an initiative launched by NHS England this year in response to widespread concerns about lack of access to a doctor. Such experiences make it difficult to believe the claim made this week by NHS England that around one in six of all GP appointments is taken up by people who do not need to be there. It’s a discouraging process and many people just give up. If you persisted, you might then have been offered an appointment some weeks hence, perhaps by telephone rather than face to face. Have you tried to get an appointment with your GP lately? Maybe you got as far as a conversation with the receptionist, only to be subjected to a long and possibly embarrassing interrogation about the nature of your symptoms.

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