Doctors accused of lacking compassion in survey of patients: Patients Association findings reveal growing concerns about attitudes and actions of GPs
Some GPs are failing to show enough compassion, refusing to refer patients to consultants and striking off those who complain about their treatment, claims a new report by the Patients Association.
Too many patients feel their family doctor communicates with them poorly, does not involve them in decisions about their care and can be rude and dismissive, the charity says.
Analysis of the experiences of NHS primary care relayed by a sample of 500 patients who called its helpline between January and June this year shows a small but growing minority of patients have major concerns about how their GP treated them.
Katherine Murphy, the association's chief executive who is a former NHS nurse and hospital manager, highlighted concerns among those receiving primary care: "The vast and overwhelming majority of care and treatment is delivered superbly by dedicated clinicians. However, as in the rest of the NHS, the small minority of cases of bad care translate into large numbers of patients that, for a multitude of reasons, have cause to be dissatisfied with the contact they have had with the primary care sector.
"This is a problem that is growing. It is equally clear that the standard of care being provided on some occasions goes beyond 'poor' and is actually rude, disrespectful and harmful to the patients' health."
Of the helpline's 8,000 calls a year, the proportion referring to GPs rose sharply from 11% in 2011 to 25% in the first half of this year. The commonest complaint (26%) was about patients receiving too little information about their treatment or follow-up appointments or about the GP appearing unsympathetic, unwilling to listen or refusing to let patients discuss what they had been told.
Among the 500 patients in the sample, only 60% said their GP treated them with compassion, 39% rated their GP's communication skills as five or less out of 10 and 80% said they wanted to be more involved in decisions about their care.
One in eight calls were from patients who said they had been unable to get a referral to see a hospital consultant or had to chase the GP to secure an appointment. Another 10% had been struck off their GP's list without receiving any warning after raising a concern about their care.
The report comes weeks after the General Medical Council, which regulates doctors, said complaints against doctors had risen 23% in the last year, of which 47% were against GPs. Complaints to the GMC about doctors overall have jumped 69% in the past three years.
Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the British Medical Association's GPs' committee, said the report was hard to reconcile with the last Department of Health survey of patients' experiences, which found that 88% rated their overall experience with their GP practice as good and 93% had trust and confidence in the last GP they saw.
However, although based on a small number of patients, Vautrey said the findings highlighted some real concerns. Some patients were being denied the chance to see a consultant because of "arbitrary" money-saving limits set by NHS primary care trusts that restricted GPs' ability to refer patients to hospital. He said that could pose a medical risk to a patient whose condition was not picked up.
"GPs are working harder than ever before and the pressure on their time is greater than before," Vautrey said. "They would like to spend more time with patients but, if you do that, then the total number of appointments available is reduced. We would never sanction rudeness, no matter how much pressure a GP is under. But we need to put the small numbers in this report into the context of the three million people a week who access primary care services."
Lord Howe, the health minister, sympathised with the concerns raised in the report. "Patients should be treated as people rather than as a condition, illness or an NHS number – this is the modern health service we are working to achieve," he said.
He claimed the coalition's NHS shakeup "will redesign health and care services around the needs of the individual and the local community where they live. Control is being handed to local doctors and nurses who best understand what their patients need, rather than a one size fits all NHS". The Guardian
Some GPs are failing to show enough compassion, refusing to refer patients to consultants and striking off those who complain about their treatment, claims a new report by the Patients Association.
Too many patients feel their family doctor communicates with them poorly, does not involve them in decisions about their care and can be rude and dismissive, the charity says.
Analysis of the experiences of NHS primary care relayed by a sample of 500 patients who called its helpline between January and June this year shows a small but growing minority of patients have major concerns about how their GP treated them.
Katherine Murphy, the association's chief executive who is a former NHS nurse and hospital manager, highlighted concerns among those receiving primary care: "The vast and overwhelming majority of care and treatment is delivered superbly by dedicated clinicians. However, as in the rest of the NHS, the small minority of cases of bad care translate into large numbers of patients that, for a multitude of reasons, have cause to be dissatisfied with the contact they have had with the primary care sector.
"This is a problem that is growing. It is equally clear that the standard of care being provided on some occasions goes beyond 'poor' and is actually rude, disrespectful and harmful to the patients' health."
Of the helpline's 8,000 calls a year, the proportion referring to GPs rose sharply from 11% in 2011 to 25% in the first half of this year. The commonest complaint (26%) was about patients receiving too little information about their treatment or follow-up appointments or about the GP appearing unsympathetic, unwilling to listen or refusing to let patients discuss what they had been told.
Among the 500 patients in the sample, only 60% said their GP treated them with compassion, 39% rated their GP's communication skills as five or less out of 10 and 80% said they wanted to be more involved in decisions about their care.
One in eight calls were from patients who said they had been unable to get a referral to see a hospital consultant or had to chase the GP to secure an appointment. Another 10% had been struck off their GP's list without receiving any warning after raising a concern about their care.
The report comes weeks after the General Medical Council, which regulates doctors, said complaints against doctors had risen 23% in the last year, of which 47% were against GPs. Complaints to the GMC about doctors overall have jumped 69% in the past three years.
Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the British Medical Association's GPs' committee, said the report was hard to reconcile with the last Department of Health survey of patients' experiences, which found that 88% rated their overall experience with their GP practice as good and 93% had trust and confidence in the last GP they saw.
However, although based on a small number of patients, Vautrey said the findings highlighted some real concerns. Some patients were being denied the chance to see a consultant because of "arbitrary" money-saving limits set by NHS primary care trusts that restricted GPs' ability to refer patients to hospital. He said that could pose a medical risk to a patient whose condition was not picked up.
"GPs are working harder than ever before and the pressure on their time is greater than before," Vautrey said. "They would like to spend more time with patients but, if you do that, then the total number of appointments available is reduced. We would never sanction rudeness, no matter how much pressure a GP is under. But we need to put the small numbers in this report into the context of the three million people a week who access primary care services."
Lord Howe, the health minister, sympathised with the concerns raised in the report. "Patients should be treated as people rather than as a condition, illness or an NHS number – this is the modern health service we are working to achieve," he said.
He claimed the coalition's NHS shakeup "will redesign health and care services around the needs of the individual and the local community where they live. Control is being handed to local doctors and nurses who best understand what their patients need, rather than a one size fits all NHS". The Guardian
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