Professor John Robertson OBA

BBC Breakfast this morning:

Accident and emergency departments in England have dealt with more than 4 000 cases of hiccups in the past five years and well over a million sore throats.

How do they explain the above and a tenfold increase in folk with minor ailments gong to A&E? They don’t, just leaving viewers with a plea to go elsewhere for treatment and confuse us with an only loosely connected Labour Government announcement that 500 new ambulances will be delivered three months early. Are folk calling for an ambulance with hiccups or a sore throat? Difficult, you’d think.

BBC Scotland? They could find even one case for us, apparently.

It is explained across the press as simply ‘a failure in primary care.’

What do they mean?

Not enough GPs…in England that is, clearly:

There has actually been a slight 1.3% improvement in the ratio of the number of patients to GPs in England, since September 2024, from 2 270 per FTE GP to 2 241 patients per GP. ¹

In Scotland, a more significant 3.1% improvement from 1 734 to 1 680 per FTE GP.²

And in Wales, from 2 375 to 2 440, a 2.8% worsening.³

So, in Scotland each GP is responsible for 1 680 patients while in England and Wales it’s between 2 241 and 2440, around 560 more, nearly one third more. That can’t be healthy, can it?

Sources:

1. https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/patients-registered-at-a-gp-practice/september-2024
2. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/general-practice-demographics-data-visualisation/general-practice-demographics-data-visualisation-up-to-31-march-2024/
3. https://www.gov.wales/general-practice-workforce-31-march-2024-html