Skip to content

Winter pressures leave GP 'exhausted'

Nikki Fox/BBC Dr Jamie Green in his surgery. He is wearing a light-coloured open-necked shirt over a dark sweater. He has short hair and glasses. Behind him is a pinboard and the back of a computer monitor.Nikki Fox/BBC
Dr Jamie Green said when hospitals cancelled operations, patients' problems often had to be treated by local GPs

A GP has described how winter pressures have left him "exhausted" and having to make "more extreme" calculated risks.

Dr Jamie Green, one of eight GPs at the Delapre Medical Centre in Northampton, said "resources are so tight", with demand up 138% on the previous week.

Nine years ago the surgery had 16,000 patients on its books but now has 19,500.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he had invested £889m in GP funding and had recruited extra doctors.

Nikki Fox/BBC Dr Jamie Green faces a male patient in his surgery. He is wearing a light-coloured open-necked shirt over a dark sweater. He has short hair and glasses. Behind him is a pinboard and the back of a computer monitor. The patient is wearing a gingham shirt and has dark hair. He is facing away from the camera.Nikki Fox/BBC
Dr Green said the pressures of the job were leaving staff 'exhausted'

BBC Politics East visited the practice, which every morning has calls from 100 people seeking appointments.

To stop people waiting and make sure the sickest are seen, all patient appointments are booked online.

Doctors see 25 patients a day. Dr Green currently has 70 blood tests to look at and 60 letters to deal with.

He told the BBC a rise in respiratory illnesses was increasing attendances.

"Compared to last week our demand is up 138% right now," he said.

"So demand is up, which is inevitable with things like respiratory illnesses."

Nikki Fox/BBC Julie Page sits in front of her computer screen. She has blonde hair in a bob and is wearing a blue top. A blue NHS lanyard is round her neck.Nikki Fox/BBC
Julie Page, reception team leader at the surgery, said a lack of appointments was a major problem

He said winter pressures on the region's hospitals, such as Northampton General Hospital, also added to the pressures on GP surgeries in the county.

"If a patient is discharged from hospital a bit sooner than they would otherwise have been, they can turn up at the surgery still unwell," he said.

"Or if operations are cancelled or delayed, inevitably we are dealing with their problems for longer.

"We (GPs) are good at taking calculated risks. The problem is, now resources are so tight, the risks we are taking are probably more extreme than we feel comfortable with.

"When you are doing that and trying to avoid sending people to hospital... the job is harder and you end up, at the end of the day, really exhausted."

Julie Page, reception team leader, said said every day GP's were fully booked.

"It's very hard because of a lack of appointments and probably too many patients.

"The demand is very high," she said.

Martin Barber/BBC Northampton General Hospital's accident and emergency department with ambulances lined up outside.Martin Barber/BBC
Winter pressures hitting hospitals can have a knock-on effect on local GP surgeries

Streeting has told the House of Commons: "We have recruited hundreds of GPs to the frontline already, and we will recruit hundreds more in the months to come.

"We have announced an extra £889m in funding for general practice, which is the biggest funding uplift in years, alongside a package of reforms to bust bureaucracy, slash unnecessary targets and give GPs more time to spend with their patients - our first step towards bringing back the family doctor."

BBC Politics East will be broadcast on Sunday 19 January at 10:00 GMT on BBC One in the East of England, and will be available after broadcast on BBC iPlayer.

Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

More related stories