Doctors could be missing important details on patients’ notes due to workload amid winter chaos, GP claims
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, one of the nation’s foremost GPs, has raised alarm over family doctors missing vital information as winter demands take their toll on the NHS
DOCTORS could be missing important details on patients’ notes as they are under so much pressure, the country’s leading GP has warned.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said many family doctors are “worried” over what they could have overlooked.
Some are also playing it safe by referring patients for unnecessary tests as they work against seasonal pressures.
It comes as a poll of more than 1,000 GPs found 89 per cent feel their workload increases in winter, with 81 per cent saying it affects their ability to provide effective care.
The professor said: “From a doctor’s point of view, it is incredibly stressful. It’s horrible knowing that all these patients want and need us yet we’ve only got one pair of hands.
“The thing that causes the greatest stress is not being able to do a safe job, a good job.
“We are highly trained healthcare professionals who want to do the best job we possibly can — that’s why we get out of bed in the morning.
“But to feel at the end of the day that you haven’t done a good enough job or a safe enough job, or that you might have missed something, is incredibly stressful.”
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Prof Stokes-Lampard urged people to “self-care”, which means ensuring there is enough routine medication and basic first aid items in the home.
The survey of 1,094 GPs also found 55 per cent feel there is enough information available to patients about what to do if they feel unwell in winter.
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