Yesterday, as Shadow Health Minister, I was able to secure an Urgent Question to the Primary Care Minister about the GP contract changes which come into effect from 1st April.
GPs and practices need adequate time and information in order to adhere to the legal demands that are being imposed on them.
But even after yesterday's Urgent Question, there are many questions to be answered:
- Still no answers about what defines "urgent" and "dealt with" on the day
- No answers on how to keep patients safe with uncapped demand
- No answer about the fact that Advice & Guidance will now be mandatory, meaning a GP won't be able to refer directly to a consultant on almost every case, and who is responsible for the care
- No answer about where those patients now kept from being referred to hospital are recorded - they won't appear on waiting lists in secondary care, so where will they be
My worry is that they will be elsewhere in the system, not showing in the data on waiting lists!
