The General Practice Forward View set out plans for a review of primary care through to 2020 to achieve “more convenient access to care, a stronger focus on population health and prevention, more GPs and a wider range of practice staff, operating in more modern buildings, and better integrated with community and preventive services, hospital specialists and mental health care.”
Convenient access to care has focussed on creating evening and weekend appointments and accessing digital services, putting extra pressure on already overstretched GPs who are also being asked to reduce the flow of patients into A&E departments. Throw in a pandemic and the situation is getting worse, not better.
The nation’s mental health is also at an all-time low with a mix of worries, health issues and concerns about job security and redundancy escalating…