Access to GPs still needs to improve, council told

Improvements still need to be made for patients trying to access GP services in Walsall, councillors have said, despite figures showing things are "moving in the right direction".

Last year, an extra 135,000 GP appointments were offered to patients across Walsall between January and November.

Out of the extras on offer, 75% were face-to-face, a small proportion were home visits and the rest were telephone appointments.

The figures were welcomed by councillors at a recent social care and health scrutiny meeting – but several shared personal experiences, and those of residents, that show patients are still encountering difficulties.

Councillor Waheed Rasab said one resident, an 87-year-old, said she had called the GP 31 times and couldn't get an appointment. "That is the real problem," he added.

Meanwhile, councillor Amanda Parkes said she had found it difficult to get an appointment.

"If you don't go there and stand outside at 8am in the morning, you can't get an appointment, especially on a Monday," she said.

GP Dr Harinder Baggri told councillors he was shocked to hear about the problems people had faced.

"Looking at the actual patient data, the appointment levels have gone up," he said. "However, since covid, the complexity of our patients has hugely increased."

NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB), said it had hired 25 new members of staff to assist with the workload, seven of who were GPs.

Pip Mayo, representing the ICB, added that all NHS services were struggling with the level of funding they were receiving.

"We are seeing greater need coming through, more complexity and more people than we did pre-covid, and unfortunately the amount of funding hasn't kept pace with that," she said.

"I recognise there can be a disconnect between what we think we're doing strategically and what people are seeing on the ground.

"Getting feedback during the process is really important to help us understand how well things are landing and to move in the right direction with a really difficult funding situation."

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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