GPs will, from next month, be contractually obliged to offer a response to patients the first time they get in contact, which will include ‘communicating with the patient’ or directing them to appropriate services.
An LMC has now warned that the changes around access and in particular clause 4 will result in GPs diverting ‘extremely large numbers of patients’ to 111 and A&E for fear of being held in contract breach’.
Read more – Management in Practice (21/4/23)