The Government knows that this winter will be tough for our NHS, and that is why they are taking action now so that patients can get the care they need.
That is why, today, they have announced their Plan for Patients, prioritising ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists. They will improve patients’ access to GP practices, recruit additional support staff, give pharmacies powers to prescribe more medicines and introduce cloud-based telephone systems to GP practices.
This is just the first step in the Government's work to bolster our NHS and social care services, helping to cut Covid backlogs, deliver additional appointments and help patients can get the care they need.
The plan includes:
- Changing funding rules to recruit extra support staff, freeing up over one million appointments per year. By changing the funding rules, GP practices will be able to recruit additional support staff, such as GP assistants and advanced nurse practitioners – allowing GPs to focus on treating patients and freeing up over one million appointments per year.
- Publishing appointment data at practice level for the first time ever – helping patients to better understand the care they will receive. By publishing appointment data at practice level, we will support patients in getting better access to information about their treatments, allowing them to make decisions that best suit them.
- Helping pharmacies to manage and supply more medicines, freeing up to two million GP appointments per year. By allowing pharmacies to manage and supply medicines, such as contraceptives, without a GP prescription, we will help to free up to two million GP appointments each year.
- Allowing pharmacies to take referrals for minor illnesses from emergency care, helping to reduce NHS wait times for patients. By allowing pharmacies to take referrals from emergency care for illnesses such as coughs, headaches, and sore throats, we will free up valuable time and resources in emergency care departments, helping to reduce wait times.
- Accelerating the roll-out of new cloud-based telephone systems, making it easier for patients to get through to their local GP practice. This will make it easier for patients to arrange appointments and receive advice about their care.
- Calling on the one million volunteers who stepped up during the pandemic to support the NHS to come forward again. During the pandemic, over one million volunteers stepped up to support our NHS, and we are calling on them to come forward again in a national endeavour such as by becoming community first responders or Good Neighbour Scheme leaders.
You can find out more HERE.
Image: "Ambulance" by gwire is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.
