Ministers reject calls to reinstate patients' right to see GP within two days

Ministers reject calls to reinstate patients' right to see GP within two days Ministers have rejected calls to reinstate patients' right to see their GP within 48 hours as a way of relieving the pressure on overcrowded A&E units.

The coalition scrapped the guarantee, introduced by Labour in 2000, as part of a scaling back of NHS targets soon after it took power in 2010.

But the Patients Association on Wednesday backed a bid by Labour to persuade ministers to rethink that decision and said long waiting times to see a GP was a source of frustration for patients.

Katherine Murphy, its chief executive, said the move needed to happen immediately because "A&E wards are currently at breaking point from a continued influx of patients who can't get a quick enough appointment with their GP, as well as having to cope with the inevitable surge during the winter months".

Six in ten (61%) patients already have to wait more than 48 hours to see their family doctor, added Murphy.

But Dr Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of GPs, dismissed Labour's call as "an ill-thought out, kneejerk response to a long-term problem, which is the profound crisis in the NHS caused by the chronic under-funding of general practice". GPs could not cope with speedier access on demand for patients because they were "already stretched to their limits and struggling to provide safe care for their patients", she added.

The 48-hour guarantee "whilst well-intentioned, distorted the smooth running of general practice", Baker said. Given that GPs handle 90% of patients' contact with the NHS it should increase general practice's share of the service's budget from 8.3% to 11% by 2017, to help them offer more and speedier appointments, longer opening times and a wider range of services, Baker said.

Speaking in an opposition day debate in the Commons on A&E problems the shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: "GPs may not be so keen on it; that's true. But it was valued by patients and that is the most important thing. It is so important that people are able to get appointments when they need them."

During the same debate Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh said access to GPs was so bad in her Mitcham and Morden seat in south London the "desperate" constitutents were asking for her help in securing one. "It comes to something when constituents contact me to attempt to get them a GP appointment," she said.

The Department of Health said: "Doctors themselves said the 48-hour target was not working and had perverse consequences. GP opening hours must be set locally, in line with patients' wishes and needs, not dictated from Whitehall."

Labour's motion asking that the Commons noted its concerns about A&E was defeated by 307 votes to 242, a government majority of 65.

New research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine shows that flu has not become a problem this winter. So far there have been 6,000 cases per 100,000 of population, half of last year's rate, scientists there said.

The winter vomiting bug norovirus, which also puts strain on the NHS every winter because it leads to wards having to close, has not yet become a major problem, the latest evidence indicates. The Guardian