If employees can’t access GP appointments, what will that mean for absence and productivity rates?
You certainly don’t need me to tell you that the NHS has more than a few problems at the moment. Indeed I wrote on this very issue for my Employer News column in January this year.
But this issue is not just about those rather frightening NHS waiting lists that most people are already aware of. Our issue today is the (very valid) fear that the current waiting list numbers are not telling the entire story.
Indeed the British Medical Association (BMA) said in March;
“The waiting list is a visible backlog, but what we refer to as the growing ‘hidden backlog’ remains an unknown for the health service.”
Now that potential invisible backlog arises from many different areas, including those who did not come forward for diagnosis and/or treatment during the pandemic for any number of entirely compelling reasons.
Yet at least some of the concerns arise from the reality that many ordinary people – potentially including millions of employees – are being prevented from taking the first steps towards diagnosis and treatment by a lack of access to their family doctor.
A recent – largely unreported – survey from YouGov suggested that;
“Many Britons are going without the medical help they need because they can’t see their GP in time – and some have given up trying.”
This is deeply concerning, with the survey citing some of the chief reasons for not seeing their family doctor. These included:
- Couldn’t get through to the surgery: 31%
- Couldn’t get a timely enough appointment: 21%
- Didn’t try because didn’t expect to get an appointment: 20%
- Didn’t want to bother GP: 15%
- Not wanting to add pressure to the NHS: 15%
Whilst understandable, these all point to a system that is not working. Indeed 29% were forced into “hoping that the problem went away on its own”. This is clearly an approach laden with possible downsides for all.
And one other fact stood out to me – and I would think employers also:
- Couldn’t get an appointment to fit around my working hours: 11%
It follows that people are not seeing their doctor for many reasons, with employees perhaps having one more obstacle than others in society as they seek to balance work commitments. Yet any delay in diagnosis and treatment might lead to a condition worsening.
And it should be remembered that the family doctor is often the entry point to joining those national waiting lists. The longer it takes to start the waiting list journey, the longer it may be for the employee to return to their optimum level of output for your organisation. This point is reflected in a very telling statistic from the ONS winter survey:
“Around 3 in 10 (31%) employed or self-employed adults reported that waiting for NHS treatment had affected their work”
It is therefore evident that this is not just a problem for the employee and his/her family – it is also a problem for employer productivity too. And this whilst the UK continues to weather an uncertain economic climate and outlook.
The reality is that it is very much in the employer’s interest to find solutions to this issue.
Happily, some employers will already have a free solution that may not be receiving the traction it deserves. Many employee benefits offerings now include free access to a remote GP service (sometimes extending across the employee’s family too). Such services should ensure access to a qualified GP within 24 hours via a screen or phone. And such access can usually be arranged around work commitments too. Employers with this option simply need to promote access to their workers regularly.
Other organisations may consider paying for such a service – either as a stand-alone item or as a free component of wider employee benefits offerings such as a Group Income Protection or Group Medical Insurance policy.
Either way, providing access to a remote GP – and publicising that access – is something that will help the employer and employee alike, and one that I would strongly encourage many more employers to actively consider this year.
Steve Herbert is Wellbeing & Benefits Director at Partners&