GPs spearheading campaign to reduce wasted hospital time

Dr John Lethem, Dr Russell Saxby and Dr Mark Hayes will appear on giant posters around York to stop people going to A&E unnecessarily – decisions that, they say, waste hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The GPs from York Health Group posed at the University Health Centre in Heslington in front of a York bus to launch the “see your GP” campaign which shows them on posters appearing on the back of York buses.

The campaign, nicknamed “Russ on the Bus”, as one of the GPs is Dr Saxby, aims to reduce unnecessary A&E admissions. They are urging people to visit their local GP surgeries for minor ailments and concerns, instead of going to A&E.

They point out that such people are not only wasting their own time, they are wasting that of under-pressure hospital medics, too. Even worse, misusing services delays treatment for patients with genuine needs.

GP surgeries exist to deal with non-urgent injuries and illnesses that do not need hospital visits.

Health chiefs in York became so worried about the number of people turning up at A&E unnecessarily that they created the campaign to encourage people to see their GPs instead.

The message in a nutshell is: “A&E is for emergencies. Patients should not treat it as their own private health clinic”.

The GPs say A&E departments across the region charge the local health service an average of £117 per patient treating people with minor injuries and illnesses that could have been dealt with by GPs.

A York Health Group pilot study involved GPs working in the hospital’s accident and emergency department – and patients with appropriate symptoms were seen by GPs rather than the hospital doctors. Over five weeks, more than 600 patients were seen by the GPs and 70 per cent of them required no hospital treatment before being discharged.

These patients could and should have gone to see their own GPs. Only nine per cent of the patients seen by GPs were admitted.

Dr Saxby said: “A high number were young people – with 53 per cent being under 30-years-old – and many of these were students.”

The “see your GP” campaign hopes sets out to reduce the number of people visiting A&E and speed the treatment for those with more serious conditions.

York Health Group chairman Mark Hayes said: “At a time when the NHS is under huge pressure to spend every pound wisely, we hope people will help us to be as efficient as possible by thinking carefully about how they access healthcare.

“Please reserve the use of the accident and emergency department for true accidents and emergencies.”

Dr Phil Kirby, interim director of public health for NHS North Yorkshire and York, added: “This campaign complements the wider Choose Well message that we’ve been promoting for the last couple of years to try and raise awareness of the alternatives to A&E.

“We’re lucky in North Yorkshire and York as we have good access to a range of services – not only GP practices – but also community pharmacies and walk-in centres too.”