Healthwatch Portsmouth to ‘watch with interest’ to see impact of health secretary Thérèse Coffey’s winter NHS plan promises - and says more detail is needed from the government

Thérèse Coffey says that GPs will be able to take on extra staff, while pharmacists will be given more power over prescriptions and will be asked to take on more work to free up appointments.

An independent body says it will ‘watch with interest’ to see the impact of this plan in Portsmouth.

Roger Batterbury, chairperson of Healthwatch Portsmouth, said: ‘The government has set an expectation to be seen either ‘on the day’ if there is an urgent need or within two weeks for GPs.

‘We do need to see much more detail as to how this will happen locally and how the primary care teams which are now working in GP surgeries can help achieve the target set.

‘Our evidence is of people struggling to get through on the telephone lines to the surgery. If they are triaged by a care navigator in need of a GP appointment it can be a number of weeks to wait.

‘The government mentions increased telephone lines into GP surgeries and work is ongoing locally on this project.

‘We watch with interest if this changes patients’ experience.’

The health secretary announced her proposals for the health service today in parliament as part of her plans to tackle the growing crisis before the added winter pressure.

Roger added: ‘With the additional funding for ambulance control rooms and the 111 service we note the deadline of December 2022 for the increases of staff working in those areas.

‘It sounds a great plan but it is a very short window to advertise, recruit and train these additional staff.

‘The government talks of allowing hospitals to declare an escalation plus deploying hospital ambulance liaison officers (HALOs).

‘Locally Healthwatch Portsmouth is aware that too many patients in the beds at QA Hospital means new patients struggle to get admitted with ambulances queuing outside the Emergency Department.

‘We wait to hear more from South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) on their plans on this matter especially the new role of ambulance auxiliary service.’

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Thérèse Coffey told parliament that a £500m discharge fund to get thousands of medically fit patients out of hospital as soon as possible would be launched.

Roger said: ‘Care will be given £500 million across England to help improve discharge from hospital into social care, here we wonder how quickly this will make things change and if the sum of money is enough across England.

‘This needs careful planning with care homes, residential homes needing to consider capacity and potential new units being needed.’

Healthwatch also added that reference to “dental deserts” in the government’s ‘Our Plan for Patients’ document is ‘particularly relevant’ for Portsmouth.

Roger added: ‘What everyone wants is access to an NHS dentist, how we get that needs to be determined by the health and care commissioners.

‘It's important to consider how all these plans will be implemented at a local level in Portsmouth, how the plans are received by health and social care professionals on whom the impact will be felt.

‘How will we know when it has all happened, when will we in Portsmouth see the whole impact of the plans?’