A health watchdog has warned against an increase in remote GP sessions, as Havering practitioners record a huge hike in appointments since the pandemic. 

According to NHS North East London (NHS NEL), which serves eight local authorities in the capital, more than 300,000 appointments were offered in Havering between July and September 2022. 

This was an increase of almost 50,000 (15 per cent) on the same period in 2019, prior to the outbreak of Covid. 

However, the growing number of appointments has not been matched by a comparable increase in staff.

According to NHS Digital data, in September 2019 there were 1,508 GPs recorded by NHS NEL across its whole area, while in November 2022, the last month for which data is available, a total of 1,518 GPs were listed. 

This stagnation is far from just a local issue. Data from the British Medical Association demonstrates how overall GP numbers, including trainees, have seen little growth nationally since 2015, with the number of GP partners declining significantly over that time.  

In Havering specifically, the council's people overview and scrutiny sub-committee heard in late December how, between June and September last year, the number of GPs for every 100,000 patients had in fact decreased at two of the borough’s four primary care networks. 

A spokesperson for NHS NEL said it had expanded its primary care workforce with new roles, including GP assistants, practice nurses and health care assistants, since 2019, and that it now offered a “greater variety of appointments”. 

This includes remote appointments, with NHS NEL’s director of strategy and partnerships, Jo Moss, telling the Local Democracy Reporting Service late last year that across London, 45pc of GP appointments were face-to-face in recent months. 

Ian Buckmaster, executive director and company secretary at Healthwatch Havering, however cautioned against viewing more appointments as a good thing. 

He said that, according to Healthwatch Havering’s own evidence, 69pc of patients in the borough prefer face-to-face rather than remote appointments. However, younger patients did appear to be more relaxed about remote sessions than older people.

Mr Buckmaster added: “Simply offering more appointments is not a full solution if the majority of those on offer are remote rather than face-to-face, given the preference of Havering patients for the latter.  

“Clearly, remote appointments are more economic from the GPs' perspective, not only in terms of the numbers possible but because they require fewer staff to support them.

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"But if patients do not find them wholly acceptable, they can lead to additional costs (e.g. because, even after a remote appointment, a face-to-face appointment may still be needed).” 

On the question of the type of appointments offered, the NHS NEL spokesperson said: “Patients are given appointments based on their clinical need, with more urgent cases seen sooner and appointment slots available in Havering seven days a week.  

“All are made with the most appropriate clinician, for example a GP, nurse, clinical pharmacist or physiotherapist, to make sure everyone gets the best possible care and ensure that family doctors have more time to spend with those who need them most.”