THURROCK’S top councillor for health says she is concerned local people’s health is suffering because of the lack of GPs, both borough-wide and in specific areas.
Cllr Barbara Rice, said she appreciated the evidence Andrew Pike – the Director of Commissioning Operations, NHS Midlands and East – gave to the Health and Well-being Overview and Scrutiny Committee in July, but added: “We must keep up the pressure.”
Mr Pike assured the committee an “Estate Strategy for Tilbury” would be ready by the end of the year and that the physical buildings for GP premises were a significant part of the problem.
He also said new GPs do not want their own practice or responsibility for premises; the ratio between GPs and patients needs to be improved; packages need to be developed to attract new GPs, including various options and incentives – not just focusing on the money; there needed to be more training for current GPs; and people should be aware practices nurses and other primary care roles were also in crisis.
Cllr Rice said: “I was pleased Mr Pike accepted there was a crisis.
“People should be aware that there are differences in average life expectancy depending on where people live in Thurrock – between 74 and 82 for men and 79 and 86 for women.
“Much of that, for sure, is down to life-style choices, but how much of it is due to the easy availability of a quality general practice doctor?
“In affluent mid Essex the average GP has 1,752 patients to look after while in Thurrock the average GP has well over 2,000 – some of our Tilbury practices have more than 6,000 patients per GP. This cannot be fair.”
She said: “There are no easy options any more, we all – within the NHS and within Public Health and the council as a whole – have to develop a full preventative agenda, aimed at getting people to quit smoking, cut back on their drinking and taking more exercise – we all know it is more effective and more efficient to do that than to deal with the illnesses and conditions when they develop – yet the cuts hit there too.
“The trick is not to wait until somebody gets unwell before giving them education around what they are eating, their exercising routine, their lifestyles, their GPs and perhaps most importantly when to visit their GP and when not to visit their GP.
“In these days when money is increasingly tight it is all the more important all the services involved work together, share ideas and share provision.
“The fact that GPs are officially the responsibility of NHS England – not the CCG or the council – shouldn’t matter. We all have to do our bit because the general public doesn’t care who provides the service, just that it is there and easily available.
“It’s about being honest with people, honest with our residents and admitting to them that we don’t’ have money to do everything, to be up-front and say ‘we can’t do it all’.
“We have to admit reality as it really is and make sure that reality plays a pivotal part in our discussions. What we must not do is make promises we cannot keep.”
