'People will die if NHS capacity doesn't improve’ says Chesterfield pensioner as NHS pledges improvements

Adrian Rimington, chairman of the Chesterfield branch of the National Pensioners Convention said he telephoned his surgery for an appointment at 7.59am and could not access the system but by 8.01am he was 20th in the queue.

Eventually he was offered a telephone triage appointment and during the call, was told that it was ‘one issue per appointment’ and he would need to book another appointment to discuss further issues. The following day, the surgery telephoned to offer him a clinic appointment – but the first available slot was next month.

Mr Rimington said: “The health service started going downhill with Margaret Thatcher's privatisation. Now it's got to the critical point. It's not working for pensioners. And if they don't find some capacity in the system, people are going to die.”Mr Rimington said many pensioners had contacted him complaining about similar problems as well as problems getting through to the Derbyshire Medicines Order Line.

He added: "GP surgeries cannot offer timely appointments when people are ill. The common response is that full capacity has been reached and that a person must phone back the following working day. If it’s just before the weekend, you have to wait for four days.”

A spokesperson for NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) said: “We know that it is often difficult to see a GP in Derbyshire. The numbers of practising GPs is falling, but people are generally living longer, with multiple health conditions. GPs and their teams are working very hard to care for their patients and to implement improvements so local people can get the care and support they need.

"The number of appointments at GP practices in Derbyshire has increased 22% since 2019. We are making many more changes through the national primary care access recovery plan to support GPs, their teams and their patients to improve access and satisfaction with GP services.”

They added tackling the ‘8am rush’ is a key element of the national primary care recovery plan and ICB is working with all 113 GP practices in Derbyshire to introduce phone systems which means patients can get a call back when it's their turn, rather than hanging on.

A spokesman added: “GP practices employ a wide range of healthcare staff in addition to the traditional family doctor. These include advanced clinical practitioners, paramedics, advanced nurse practitioners and paramedics. These staff mean GP practices can offer more appointments, so patients can be seen by an appropriate healthcare professional even when GP appointments are full. In Derbyshire now there are 600 of these "additional roles", compared to 40 in 2019.

“The Medicines Order Line processes prescriptions for between 90,000 to 95,000 patients each month. Over recent months we have struggled to meet continued high demand on the staffing capacity available and the run-up to the Christmas period was particularly busy.

"We know that some patients have had to make several attempts to contact the service to speak with an advisor and have experienced longer waiting times than we would like. We are sorry for any inconvenience or frustration this has caused. Patients are also able to order repeat prescriptions through the NHS app and we are working with GPs to encourage more people to do this, so the Medicines Order Line can be accessed by patients who need to order by phone.

“Local pharmacies offer expert healthcare advice and treatments for a wide range of minor illnesses. We recognise that pharmacy companies locally and nationally are under pressure and we are working with the sector to support them. More and more services are being offered by pharmacy, including treatments without a referral from a GP from 31 January for conditions including sinusitis, impetigo, shingles and urinary tract infections.”