Thérèse Coffey, the Health and Social Care Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, will highlight actions for the areas that matter most to patients, including ambulances, backlogs, care, and physicians and dentists, building on the NHS winter plan.
With promises to free up more than one million appointments annually, a package of initiatives will enhance access to general practise so that all patients who require an appointment may obtain one within two weeks.
The people will be urged to contribute to a “national endeavour” to support the NHS and social care in addition to the government’s plan.
The centrepiece of anew Our Plan for Patients that will be revealed by the Health and Social Care Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister tomorrow [Thursday 22 September] is a new initiative to increase access to general practise appointments.
Thérèse Coffey will lay out her expectations for everyone who needs one to get an appointment at a GP practise within two weeks – and that the patients with the most urgent needs should be seen within the same day. This is the first step in her efforts to put the NHS and social care on a resilient footing.
In order to free up over one million appointments annually, the proposal calls for modifying funding regulations to hire more support workers. It also calls for installing more cutting-edge telephone technologies to make it simpler for patients to contact their GP offices.
Additionally, patients will have access to additional information thanks to the first-ever publication of appointments data at the practise level.
By managing and supplying more medications, such as contraception without a GP prescription, which could free up to two million general practise appointments a year, and by accepting referrals from emergency care for minor illnesses or symptoms, such as a cough, headache, or sore throat, pharmacies will help relieve pressure on GPs and free up time for appointments.
Dr. Coffey will also urge the people to join a “national endeavour” to help the health and social care system as part of Our Plan for Patients. He will specifically ask the one million volunteers who stood up during the epidemic to support the NHS to do so once again.
A drive for more volunteering in the social care and health sectors will be part of this.
Thérèse Coffey, deputy prime minister and secretary for health and social care, is anticipated to say:
I will devote all of my attention to the needs of the patients, making them my top priority and standing up for them on the matters that matter to them the most.
We will exert tremendous effort to implement our Plan for Patients, which will make it simpler to schedule a general practise appointment, as well as to assist our dedicated GP staff.
We are aware that this winter will be challenging, and this is just the beginning of our efforts to strengthen the NHS and social care systems so that people can get the treatment they need.
With more phone lines to take calls from patients, the NHS will speed up the roll-out of new cloud-based telephone systems starting in November to make it simpler for patients to contact their general practise and inform them of where they stand in the line or point them in the direction of the best place for assistance.
The government will release funding for practises to hire more roles, such as GP assistants and more experienced nurse practitioners, in addition to the roles they are already able to hire, such as pharmacists, mental health practitioners, and nursing associates, as part of the additional staff to support GPs so they can focus on seeing patients.
This backs up the government’s pledge to hire 26,000 extra primary care workers to facilitate easier appointment scheduling.
Our Plan for Patients, which will build on the NHS winter plan, will provide more information on how the general public will receive the care they require this winter and the following winter across the Health and Social Care Secretary’s A, B, C, and D priorities – ambulances, backlogs, care, and doctors’ and dentists’ appointments.
The NHS’s chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, said:
I am aware of how important timely, convenient access to GPs and primary care, the entrance to the NHS, is to patients, which is why we are working to make improvements, including new positions that will better serve patients’ needs and new technology that will make it simpler to get in touch with your local surgery.
More than four in five individuals who require an appointment are seen within two weeks, with more than two fifths being seen within one day. NHS workers are working very hard to provide record numbers of GP appointments for patients, with 11 million more this year so far than the same time last year.
We will collaborate with the government to help NHS workers in achieving these new goals for patients, which will be supported by the creation of a long-term staffing strategy.