Some patients are resorting to writing letters to their GPs to get an appointment, it has been claimed. Demand on health services remains high in the wake of the pandemic and one man said his mother only managed to get seen after taking the old-fashioned route.
Since Covid upended the world two years ago, many surgeries have launched app-based and online booking systems for patients to use. However, this does not suit everyone, particularly older people, a council's adult social care and health select committee has heard, reports TeessideLive.
Paul Weston, a councillor in Stockton-on-Tees, told the committee that his mother had written a letter to her doctor in a bid to get an appointment. He said: “If my family is anything to go by, half of them are just about managing texts. Ask them and they’ll probably think an app is short for apple. They’re not stupid - they’re just a million miles away from being able to cope with an app.
“Everything going online is a real struggle. My mother last week was trying to get an appointment with a doctor - a lot of that is going online and she couldn’t get through on the phone.
“This is a top tip - she actually ended up writing a letter to the doctor and the doctors had to reply. That’s how she got an appointment in the end.”
Cllr Lynn Hall backed up Cllr Weston’s story - telling the committee she’d seen people going in with letters as that was the only way they could get through to the doctor. The member for Hartburn added: “It’s really annoying them now - any medical thing is on an app for a smartphone and lots of people out there don’t have a smartphone.
“We’ve got to be careful about these apps. Cllr Weston has made a really valuable point - we’re talking here about 90+-year-old people we’re caring for.
“We’re trying to keep them at home, but their children are in their 60s or 70s in some cases, so an app isn’t necessarily the total answer. They’re going to have to go belt and braces and do both.”
A push to more online GP services has been backed by NHS England to offer patients more options and access to healthcare. Officials say the government is “committed to enabling patients to go online to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions and view their own health records within their GP practice”.
They argue it is saving time for practices and their patients, allowing them to take more control of their healthcare. Health bosses faced a grilling about access to appointments earlier this year
Karen Hawkins, from the now defunct Tees Valley CCG, told a committee how high quality patient care no longer relied solely on the “traditional model” of GP delivery. Ms Hawkins added: “We have seen a significant increase in demand for practice and GP services over recent months, but GPs are delivering services and will continue to deliver services.
“There are new ways of consulting with patients and there is a significant demand now for e-consultations and video consultations, and GPs and other staff can undertake those remotely as they did through the Covid period. There still is the requirement for GPs to see patients face to face when it is clinically necessary and each practice will determine who is the most suitably qualified person to see each patient based on their needs.”
NHS England has been contacted for comment on the latest appointment access concerns.
