Chair of the RCGP, Dr Maureen Baker, has issued a response to the Care Quality Commission’s annual State of Care report 2015/2016 out today.
She said: “Once again, we see a throwaway line in a CQC report distorting the real story that the overwhelming majority of GP practices are doing an excellent job of delivering safe care to the highest possible standards – despite ballooning workloads and insufficient resource.
“The biggest threat to patient safety is tired doctors: GPs, and other members of the general practice team, who are worn out as a result of trying to manage rocketing patient demand as our service carries out 1.3m patients consultations every day, against a backdrop of a decade of dwindling resources.
“It is not a GP practice without a policy in place for monitoring the use of blank prescription forms or because it hasn’t carried out a legionella risk assessment.
“It is extremely unfair to patients and to hardworking, hard pressed family doctors to single out the patient safety ‘risk’ in general practice, especially when GPs remain the most trusted health professionals in the NHS.
“Where practices are struggling to meet quality standards, it is often due to factors beyond their control, such as lack of funding, significant increases in patient consultations and difficulties in trying to recruit sufficient GPs to meet patients’ needs.
For full article see Royal College of General Practitioners 13 October 2016