Funding boost to help access GPs
Reporter: Rosalyn Roden
Date published: 28 February 2017
RESIDENTS will be given seven-day access to GPs in Greater Manchester after a £41 million plan was given the go-ahead.
The move will make it easier for patients to access 24/7 urgent primary care provision, according to the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership board, which oversees the region's £6 billion health and social care budget.
Patients across Greater Manchester will be able to book an appointment with a nurse or GP during new evening and weekend slots based at practices in the city's 10 boroughs.
Additional access to services and diagnostics such as blood tests, X-rays and urgent care will also be created, as well as support for nursing and residential homes.
The board said the Primary Care Reform Plan "paves the way for the transformation of general practice across Greater Manchester".
It is also hoped the plan reduces pressure on hospital A&E departments.
The programme was said to be a "vital part of overall plans to bring more care into communities and out of hospitals as much as possible".
At any one time there are an estimated 2,500 patients in an A&E hospital bed across Greater Manchester who could be treated at home or in a community setting.
Partnership chairman Lord Peter Smith said: "This £41 million investment will ensure that our GPs across Greater Manchester are supported to provide high-quality care now and in the future.
"Putting primary care back at the heart of our local communities is absolutely the right thing to do and shows how devolution can make gains for patients' right across Greater Manchester."
New appointments providing around 323 hours of consultation each week will be available at 12 GP hubs to serve "clusters" of up to 50,000 residents.
There are currently three of these hubs in Oldham, with a fourth in the process of opening. There are more than 40 hubs across Greater Manchester.
GP practices selected as a hub will have longer opening hours from 8am until 8pm on weekdays and at least four hours on both Saturdays and Sundays.
Funding will also be allocated to employ more staff within the primary care workforce and clinical pharmacists to work alongside GPs.
This has already been rolled out in Oldham, Bury and South Manchester but will be expanded to cover all areas of Greater Manchester over the next five years.
Partnership associate lead in primary care Dr Tracey Vell said: "It's hugely exciting to both shape and be a part of these changes in Greater Manchester. To make primary care fit for the future, we must reform as well as invest.
"This investment will ensure that our GPs and other healthcare professionals are able to provide high-quality care now and in the future and that patients will be able to receive more care closer to home."
However the British Medical Association's General Practitioners Committee (GPC) raised concerns over spending money on extending hours when there is a shortage of GPs across the country.
Deputy chair of the GPC Dr Richard Vautrey said: "Around £40 million is being spent on this extended hours scheme when many practices don't have enough GPs to meet the needs of their patients during regular opening hours.
"We have to use scarce NHS resources where they will have the most impact on patient care - for instance, investing in core daytime services rather than trying to stretch an already overstretched service more thinly.
"As there are too few GPs available, it's possible these extra appointments at evenings and weekends won't necessarily be with a doctor but could be with a nurse, a pharmacist, physiotherapist or a paramedic. They certainly won't be held with one's named GP so I think providers should be more honest."
