General Practices in Lincolnshire feel the squeeze as demand increases

Deputy Chief of the General Practitioners Committee for England and Lincolnshire GP Dr Kieran Sharrock, says increasing NHS pressures are squeezing all other health services.

"Is that safe for the patients? Is that safe for my well-being? Probably not."

GPs across the country have been affected by staff shortages, increased demand, and particularly inflation.

As ongoing NHS pressures continue to rise, other health sectors have begun to feel the demand.

In Lincolnshire, the number of Covid patients in hospital have tripled in the last month, ambulance handovers have been delayed and A&E wait times are extensive.

The pressure on the NHS has increased due to a variety of factors, including the pandemic, according to Lincolnshire GP Dr Kieran Sharrock.

"I mean, the whole of the NHS is under a lot of pressure, and we all know about delays for ambulance services not being able to drop their patients off at hospitals, and huge waits for people staff to see people in outpatients in hospitals.

"GP practices are doing more and more appointments than they have ever done before and that is putting pressure on GP practices, and at the same time the number of GPs has dropped by 70 in the last month.

"So that's equivalent to nearly 150,000 people who have lost their family doctor. So, it's a real pressure of time within the NHS."

As the Deputy Chief, Dr Sharrock, alongside other members of the executive team, work to represent the views of GPs in England on all matters affecting general practice.

One issue that was raised by the former LMC Medical Director was the rising costs of living; impacting the costs of general functions, from heating bulbs to paying for premises. It is also suggested that there is currently no support for these increased expenses.

John Turner, the Chief Executive of the NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board, has also commented on the matter.

Stating health services were "significantly stretched" due to the latest coronavirus wave.

In a meeting addressing East Lindsey District Council's Overview Committee, he outlined some of the problems that hospitals were facing in the county.

Including, the rise in Covid patients:

"We had just under 90 Covid patients in hospital as of Monday morning. That is down from well over 100 last week, however if you look to last month, we were ticking over at 20 or 30," he told the committee.

"Just under 10% of beds are being occupied by Covid patients.

"There is a real concern over capacity, particularly about how many staff are off with Covid. They obviously can't come into patient areas while they're testing positive.

"All of our services are significantly stretched."

"The JCVI has also issued advice for autumn boosters for over 50s and some other groups, so we are gearing up for that campaign."

The ambulance delays:

"There have been a lot of news stories on ambulances handover delays, when they queue outside hospitals to offload patients in A&E.

"Lincolnshire has had issues with ambulance handover as much as anywhere else in the country.

"The fundamental problem is that our hospitals are so full of patients."

In addition, Mr Turner commented on staff shortages:

"There are workforce shortage in all professions in NHS across the country. Lincolnshire has disproportionately greater levels of vacancies, meaning they need locum and agency staff.

"Our figures are likely to be worse than the national average.

"ULHT has been working for several years to increase permanent staff and reduce agency staff, so they are moving in the right direction. The medical school is part of this."

Previosuly there has been no plan to support the workforce of the NHS, but it is said by Dr Sharrock, the Government have decided there now needs to be a strategy to overcoming this strain.

"Saying there needs to be a plan and there being a plan at two different things and having a plan and then instigating that plan is another thing altogether."