The Government’s plans to boost access to GP appointments and expand the workforce lack credibility, according to an influential committee of MPs.
The Public Accounts Committee made the comments in a progress report on the Government’s GP access programme, which aims to deliver 8am-8pm routine appointments to all, seven days a week, by 2020 and 5,000 more GPs by 2020.
According to the report, the Government is ‘moving ahead in rolling out extended hours without really understanding the level of access currently being provided or how to get the best from existing resources’.
It also noted that there is a risk that the evening and weekend GP appointments pledge ‘could prove expensive and duplicate existing out-of-hours services’
On access, the report also noted that ‘many GP services are closed to patients at times during supposedly core hours, leading to worse outcomes for patients’.