A leading GP claims some people in Wales are lacking in vital vitamins because they cannot afford to eat properly. Dr Rowena Christmas, Wales chair of the Royal College of GPs, said an increasing number of consultations are centered around the cost-of-living crisis and the physical and mental problems that come with it.
Dr Christmas said community doctors are seeing an increasing number of deficiencies in people's blood tests, including vitamin B12 and folate, which are linked to their poor diets. She added that there was also a growing number of patients with respiratory issues due to being unable to pay their heating bills.
She also echoed comments made earlier this week by fellow Welsh GP Professor Kamila Hawthorne who said doctors are seeing more people refusing sick notes because they feel they cannot afford to take time off work. Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, Dr Christmas added that this crisis was leading to a spike in domestic abuse cases as parents argue over their financial hardships.
Read more: The falling number of GPs and practices in Wales
"Many of our consultations are now focusing on the cost of living and increasing poverty which causes lots of physical problems and mental health problems," she explained. "Patients are refusing sick notes because they're perhaps on contracts with very little sick pay, if any at all, and the bills are getting bigger and bigger. The cost of just getting to work and putting petrol in the car is rising, so too is heating the home - and the cost of food is going through the roof.
"I am seeing more deficiencies in people's blood tests - B12 deficiencies and folate deficiencies - and I'm sure this is related to people's diets being poor as a result of not being able to afford such good-quality food as before."
Dr Christmas said money problems are impacting people "across the board" and are not isolated to a single group in society. "Younger people have got big rents or have huge costs associated with their houses - but these increased costs are affecting absolutely everybody," she added.
"And with poverty you get increased pressures in the home, so I'm seeing an increase in people presenting with domestic abuse, children having problems listening to Mum and Dad argue about how to pay the bills, I'm seeing more people with respiratory problems as they haven't turned their heating on yet when normally they would have done by the end of November.
"I'm talking to other GPs who are just feeling hopeless after whole days of surgeries with problems being presented to them that they haven't really got the solutions to. It causes moral distress."
Dr Christmas said psychiatric teams are "doing their very best" to cope with an influx of mental health patients, but admitted there can be quite long waits to be seen. "It just adds to the burden on everybody- it's very difficult.
"You have a pastoral role as a GP, as well as diagnosing chest infections and so on. You find yourself talking with patients about ways to afford certain foods that will keep them healthier and ways to keep warm. I talk a lot about hot water bottles and blankets - things you just never thought you'd need to be talking about in this day and age."
Today the Royal College of GPs is launching its Welsh Government-funded 'Deep End' project which is bringing together primary care staff from across the 100 most deprived areas of Wales to discuss the growing impact of health inequalities in deprived areas. "We are getting them together to talk about things that practices are doing to support their patients in very poor areas in the hope we can chare best practice. I'm hoping it will be a really inspiring afternoon."
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