The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has called for an emergency rescue package to provide a solution to ‘crisis-torn’ general practice in the UK.

The RCGP’s chair Martin Marshall said GPs’ jobs are ‘largely undoable’ even prior to COVID-19, adding that general practice is at a ‘breaking point’, with many staff members facing burn out.

Marshall has urged Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid and incoming chief executive of NHS England Amanda Pritchard to implement a five-point recovery plan for general practice in the UK.

Data shows that consultations by GPs have been rising since last summer, increasing above historic levels since the end of April this year. In June 2021, consultation rates were 11% higher than in June 2019 and are at near record levels, despite the summer period historically being lower demand.

Although consultation rates are rapidly rising, the number of fully qualified GPs in England has dropped while the population grows, with the number of full-time equivalent GPs falling by 4.5% between September 2015 and March 2021.

On top of that, six in ten GPs say their mental health has deteriorated in the last year, with 63% saying they expect things to get worse over the next five years. In addition, a recent RCGP survey found that 34% of GPs expect to leave within five years, with a quarter citing stress and burn out as the reason why.

“We need an expanded workforce with the appropriate support and premises if we are to improve access, reduce health inequalities, ensure patient safety, and give GPs more time to care for and build trusting relationships with their patients,” said Marshall.

NHS England has set out plans to improve patient access to mental health services with a proposal to introduce five new waiting time guarantees.

The plans, part of the overall service expansion and improvement for mental health outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan, outline plans to ensure patients who require urgent care will be seen by a community mental health crisis team within 24 hours of referral.

In addition, the plans would see mental health liaison services for individuals who enter A&E departments rolled out to remaining sites across England.

Children, young people, as well as their families or carers who present to community-based mental health services would also start to receive care within four weeks from referral under the new plans.

This would also apply to adults and older adults presenting to community-based mental health services under the new waiting time guarantees.

For children and young people, care could include immediate advice, support or a brief intervention, help to access another more appropriate service, the start of a longer-term intervention, or agreement about a patient care plan or the start of a specialist assessment.

“These new standards represent another major step towards parity of esteem, ensuring people who need care know when they can expect to receive it and will support more rapid access to evidence-based treatment and support,” said Claire Murdoch, national mental health director for NHS England.

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has announced a new collaboration with the Academic Health Science Network, focused on supporting the NHS in adopting evidence-based healthcare.

As part of the agreement, both organisations will leverage their strengths, skills and resources in a bid to support use of the ‘best evidence-based healthcare’ in the NHS to improve patients’ lives.

In a statement, NICE said that AHSN shares its purpose of identifying and accelerating the uptake of well-evidenced innovations into the healthcare system for the improvement of quality, safety, outcomes and experience.

Under the collaboration, NICE and AHSN will focus on a number of priority areas including addressing market challenges for digital innovation, shaping and generating real-world evidence and supporting innovators into the healthcare system.

This will involve expert teams from NICE and the AHSN Network meeting regularly throughout the year to develop a programme of work to help deliver the priorities outlined in the agreement.

“By working together more closely we can increase the speed at which innovative new medicines and technologies recommended by NICE can be cascaded through the healthcare system,” said Gillian Leng, chief executive of NICE.

“Our work with the AHSN Network will also ensure we are helping to produce the vital real-world evidence needed to guide the development of NICE recommendations,” she added.

The NHS has announced that it will invest £20m into fast-tracking measures for rapid cancer diagnosis, in a bid to get more people checked for cancer.

Among the measures included in the package is teledermatology, which is being used to diagnose skin cancer rapidly.

This involves a medical photographer taking pictures of suspected skin cancer, which are then sent to hospitals for rapid diagnosis and treatment.

The funding will also be used to help speed up diagnosis for prostate cancer, by referring patients directly for an MRI scan by nurses rather than waiting for an appointment with a consultant.

It will also include a boost for nurse-led ‘lumps and bumps clinics’ – these will offer examinations and same-day ultrasounds. Other measures include a cancer symptom hotline, where nurses will give patients advice relating to cancer symptoms and make referrals over the phone.

“The NHS has prioritised cancer treatment throughout the coronavirus pandemic and, alongside caring for 405,000 people with coronavirus in hospitals and delivering over 65 million vaccines, more than 350,000 people have also started treatment for cancer since it began,” said Cally Palmer, NHS national director for cancer.

“We know that some patients did not come forward but, thanks to the huge efforts of our staff, we’re seeing referral and treatment levels recover.

“From cancer symptom hotlines to skin snaps and rapid triage, NHS staff are once again going to great lengths to ensure that those who are coming forward for checks can continue to be seen quickly, so that cancer can be caught at an earlier stage,” she added.