5 million patients denied a GP appointment last month, says Labour

GOOD AFTERNOON and welcome to my patient safety weekly email. This week I expand on my comments on GP targets from last week, we look at the [mini] Budget’s impact on NHS and social care funding and also Labour’s health announcements. 

TARGETS Building on my response to Therese Coffey’s first statement to Parliament as Health Secretary last week I have used my latest blogpost to explain why I am worried about the introduction of a new two week GP access target. Nobody is against faster access to GPs but it is a capacity issue which no target is going to solve. It also ducks the big reform we need in general practice which is to restore continuity of care so people see their own GP except in urgent cases, as happens very successfully at a number of surgeries now.  But the problem is a wider cultural one: with so many targets (this is no 73 for GPs) the NHS cannot prioritise and ends up sinking in a morass of micromanagement which turns patients into numbers. I am not the only one with these concerns: The RCGP is opposed to them and NHS England doesn’t appear to have much enthusiasm given this morning’s news that it is has delayed implementation of the related financial incentive until next April. But how do you persuade a new health secretary that whilst reaching for targets makes you feel like you’ve done something you actually change very little? Perhaps by encouraging her to read my book Zerowhere I go into detail about how I fell into the same trap. She has a copy…

MINI BUDGET The government’s Growth Plan last Friday confirmed that the Health and Care Levy will be scrapped. Significantly, the related documents stated that funding for health and social care services “would be maintained at the same level as if the Levy was in place.” That is good news of a sort and I am sure it will be confirmed in the Chancellor’s Medium-Term Fiscal Plan on 23rd November which will be scrutinised for all sorts of other reasons as we all know. But not losing the £12 bn revenue from the levy is not, of course, the whole picture. Funding pay rises when inflation is 10% will be much more expensive than when the original spending settlement was agreed which means there will be extremely painful savings to be found. The big concern is that corners start to be cut on patient safety - we will be watching carefully.

LABOUR ANNOUNCEMENT Despite my obvious political allegiances it would be remiss of me not to mention the fact that Labour has pledged to double the number of medical school places and recruit additional health visitors and district nurses. The medical school place increase was something the Select Committee called for in its report on workforce and so is something I very much hope the government also adopts on the basis that smart governments always nick the best ideas of their opponents. They also ditch the bad ones of their predecessors such as blocking an enlightened amendment to the Health Act that would have sorted out workforce planning…

COVID LATEST I spoke too soon last week (thank you Alastair McClellan for alerting me). Far from Covid being on the wane, there has been an increase in the prevalence of Covid according to the ONS with 1 in 70 people having the virus in the week ending 14th September, compared to 1 in 75 in the previous week.  The dashboard data shows a similar trend over the last 7 days cases up by 12.7% and hospitalisations up by 16.9%. Deaths which obviously lag the other indicators were down by 24.3% but there is now real concern about a 'twindemic' of flu and Covid this winter - get your jabs!

AND FINALLY if you will forgive the shameless plug I am running the London Marathon on Sunday to raise money for a new Cancer Centre for my local Royal Surrey County hospital. I will be running with my brother who is fighting off cancer himself and would love your support, large or small, if you felt able. It is my first (and probably my last!) marathon and I have been training all summer in the Surrey Hills. Here is the Just Giving link - many thanks in advance!

Jeremy Hunt