GPs to be ‘naughty’ on online access in patients’ interest, Labour MP suggests
Many GPs could initially disregard online access requirements coming into force tomorrow – in the interests of patient safety, an MP who is also a GP has said.
Dr Simon Opher, the Labour MP for Stroud, said he thought ‘a lot of GPs are going to be naughty’ and continue to use online consultation tools in ways suited to patient needs.
From tomorrow (1 October), GPs must keep online systems open for patient requests between 8am and 6.30pm for routine enquiries.
Dr Opher was speaking at the launch event for a major access white paper by Pulse at a Labour Party conference fringe event in Liverpool.
Asked if his GP practice would be have trouble from Wednesday when the contract changes are introduced, he said: ‘I think a lot of GPs are just going to be naughty like they always are, actually. I think there’ll be a bit of resistance.
He said GPs would do so ‘as long as you’re doing your best for your patients’.
‘We must get to a stage where we offer online access to patients, but we need to get there safely, and we also need to sort out this responsibility for data around the GP Connect things.
‘As a profession, we need to start working towards it. But I don’t think perhaps we should be forced straight away on Wednesday.’
The BMA has argued that because the systems can’t tell the difference between routine and urgent enquiries, serious problems could be ‘lost inside the huge haystack of unmet patient need’ due to the changes.
The union’s GP committee in England (GPCE) has voted in favour of re-entering dispute with the Government over the changes and also unsuccessfully demanded a deferral until the changes could be implemented safely.
Despite the planned dispute, the GPCE has told GPs to comply with the contractual obligations but to work ‘under protest’ while the dispute is ongoing.
Dr Grant Ingrams, GP and chief executive of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland LMC, agreed that GP practices would implement contract changes as far as they could while maintaining patient safety.
He told Pulse: ‘I think practices will look at it and will try and implement it as best they can.
‘However, my advice to practices is that they’ve got to prioritise patient safety and safety of their staff first, and my local practices were not issued with the notice for the actual changes until 2 September, and inspecting practices to completely change the way that they work in a month is not appropriate.
‘There’s got to be there’s got to be give and take. Commissioners have got to understand that, even with the best will in the world, practices may not be ready to fully implement this on 1 October, let alone our concerns about whether it’s safe or not.
‘There are so many parts of the GP contract now that practices do not implement because they’re not implementable, and this will just add to the long list.
‘We have a contract which, unlike eight years ago, … is becoming a laughing stock, because they’re making a contract which no one can fully implement all the time.’
Pulse has contacted NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care for comment.
The Access All Areas report was unveiled at the event Dr Opher was speaking at, which was hosted by Pulse and campaign group Rebuild General Practice.
Speaking earlier today at the Labour Party conference, health secretary Wes Streeting accused GP leaders opposed to the implementation of the changes of ‘conservatism’, saying their dispute risks turning the NHS ‘into a museum of 20th century healthcare’.
