People are resorting to DIY medical treatments after failing to get face-to-face appointments with GPs.
A survey found that nearly 30 per cent of adults had tried and failed to get an in-person appointment with a family doctor in the past year. About 16 per cent, or one in six, said that they had either administered a treatment themselves or asked somebody else who was not medically qualified to do so, after failing to see a GP.
The Liberal Democrats, who commissioned the survey of more than 2,000 adults, blamed years of “mismanagement and neglect” of local health services. Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said the government had repeatedly broken its promises to recruit more doctors and called on ministers to hire another 8,000 GPs.
“This is a national scandal. Face-to-face GP appointments have become almost extinct in some areas of the country,” he said. “We now have the devastating situation where people are left treating themselves or even self- prescribing medication because they can’t see their local GP.”
The polling, which involved more than 2,000 adults, found that 72 per cent had tried to book a face-to-face GP appointment in their area over the past year. Of those who tried 60 per cent were able to see a GP in person.
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The Department of Health said there were almost 2,300 more full-time equivalent doctors working in general practice in September compared with September 2019 and record numbers in training. “This year GP teams have delivered 80,000 more appointments every working day compared to last year, and we plan to deliver over a million more appointments this winter by bolstering general practice teams.”
It said GP practices must provide face-to-face appointments “and over two thirds of appointments in November were face to face”.
A similar survey released last week found that 28 per cent of pensioners said that they feared that they might have to pull out their own teeth as a result of NHS dentist shortages. Across all ages, around about 40 per cent of adults said they would consider DIY dentistry.
The British Dental Association found that more than 47 million NHS dental appointments have been lost since lockdown in England. Eddie Crouch, the association chairman, said: “DIY dentistry has no place in a wealthy 21st-century nation. Sadly, choices made in Westminster have left millions with no options.
“Demoralised dentists are walking away from a broken, underfunded system. And when real change is needed, the government has done little more than rearrange the deck chairs.”
