NHS plans criticised as patients left waiting months for GP appointment

  • Watch Sarah Cooper's report for ITV News Anglia

Doctors in the region have criticised the Government's £250 million rescue package to try and increase the number of face-to-face appointments with patients this winter. 

Hundreds of you got in touch with ITV News Anglia describing your own difficulties trying to see your GP or even make contact with your surgery over the phone.

Adam Hilliar from Cambridgeshire is in constant pain. He hurt his back seven months ago and he's still waiting to see a GP in person. 

Adam said: "It's horrific, the pain's constant. At one point I could only sleep sitting upright and only for a couple of hours at a time.

"If someone actually looked at me and saw how bad it was, decisions could have been made a lot quicker rather than leaving it.

"If I'd been seen, he'd know the pain I was in."

Dr James Morrow at his surgery in Cambridgeshire. Credit: ITV News Anglia

Now the Government has announced that GPs in England will get £250 million to improve their services ff they see more patients face-to-face.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: "Over the pandemic I don't think people will be surprised to hear that the cost per hour of locums has risen and this package will help to cover that.

"It will also help to hire in further support, clinical support including from nurses, physiotherapists, podiatrists, and others and all of this, taken together, can make a real difference."

GPs say they want to see more patients face-to-face, but often they don't have enough staff. Credit: ITV News Anglia

But Cambridgeshire GP, Dr James Morrow, said it's not enough to ease the pressure. His practice in Sawston near Cambridge needs three more GPs.

Dr James Morrow, from Granta Medical Practices, said: "I would love to have the time and resources to do nothing but face-to-face when I want it and when the patients want it.

"But until we've got more GPs, we're in a very difficult situation and the current solution - the sticking plaster, when we need intensive care - is just not going to solve the problem as I see it."