HEALTH ACTION GROUP CALLS FOR ACTION TO TACKLE DACORUM GP FAILINGS

A call for urgent NHS action to correct serious failings in Dacorum’s GP services has come from Dacorum Health Action Group (DHAG).

DHAG Chair Philip Aylett has written to the senior leader of the NHS in the area setting out a plethora of primary care problems reported to DHAG on the social media portal nextdoor. These include:

• Difficulty in making appointments

• Questions about the effectiveness of telephone appointments

• The weakening of the role of the GP as an enabler of access to NHS services and an advocate for the patient

• Doubts about the value of the wider range of health professionals now employed by practices

Dr Aylett has invited Paul Burstow, Chair of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for Herts and West Essex to meet people who are unhappy with the service they get from their GP. He has also asked the ICB to review the workings of Primary Care Networks, groups of GP practices which were supposed to help improve the service. PCNs  seem to have made little impact on raising standards.

Attached to Dr Aylett’s letter is a selection of the evidence about GP problems gathered by DHAG.

The letter is here: Letter to P Burstow FINAL