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BMA calls for urgent support for GPs as second wave looms

The BMA is warning that general practice will not be able to cope with a second wave of COVID-19 unless urgent measures are put in place to support family doctors and their teams.

The Association says GP practices in England are reporting that they do not have the capacity to carry out all the work required of them while managing the ongoing care of patients, reconfiguring services and dealing with the backlog of care.

In a new paper, the BMA GP England committee proposes measures to support practices during a second wave, including:

  • Support for the GP workforce, including occupational health services for all staff, and practices to be supplied PPE free of charge.
  • Ensuring practices receive all the resources they need by expanding the COVID Support Fund and extending it until March 2021.
  • Providing equipment to facilitate home working and working in different settings.
  • Funding for structural changes to surgery buildings to allow for enhanced social distancing.
  • Suspension of routine CQC inspections and a reduction in bureaucracy.
  • Support to continue digital triage and consultations.

Dr Richard Vautrey, BMA GP committee England chair, said:

“During the height of the pandemic earlier in the year GPs and their teams worked incredibly hard and through innovation rapidly reconfigured their ways of working to ensure that they could continue to serve their communities safely, while prioritising care for those who needed it most.

“With the UK recording a record number of daily COVID cases yesterday, GPs, like all doctors, are extremely concerned that without decisive action now, services will be overwhelmed if we see another spike in the coming weeks and months.

“The measures we’ve outlined are aimed at supporting practices and their staff to deliver high-quality care while managing the increased pressures of doing so during a pandemic, and it is vital that the Government and NHS England listens and implements these urgently to ensure that primary care can continue to operate safely through what looks to be an incredibly difficult winter.”


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