Doctors specialising in the care of older patients are urging GPs to continue to service care homes and have warned the British Medical Association (BMA) against their members treating the 400,000 patients in residential care differently to other patients.
The BMA has denied reports that family doctors intend to withdraw their services from patients in care and nursing homes but has said it would like to see changes to the way the people living in such facilities are looked after.
However, the British Geriatric Society is concerned at this, with a spokesman saying it is essential for care home residents to be able to continue to access the healthcare services they need and to have access to the same healthcare entitlements as the rest of the population.
While the BMA agrees that care home residents should receive high-quality care, the Association wants this to become the responsibility of new teams of hospital doctors and nurses as well as GPs, arguing that practice doctors already have an “unsustainable” workload.
The BMA is concerned that the UK’s 45,000 GPs are “hugely overstretched”, so want their union to talk to ministers about making care home residents the subject of a contract separate to the one under which GPs currently operate. Under their current contract, it is clear that GPs must look after patients wherever they live.
As a spokesman for the BMA’s GP committee said, the current contract has led to a “piecemeal service”, which is not doing justice to people living in care homes. He said it is not about GPs wishing to withdraw their services but about them being able to provide focused care with the right resources to ensure that older patients with multiple medical needs get the service they deserve.
At EnViva Care, our experienced staff can provide managed care in the home for individuals with conditions including dementia. For more information about the services we provide, please contact us.
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