Fall in Wigan GP appointments as vaccine roll-out given priority

Fewer GP appointments were carried out in Wigan in December, figures show, as health care workers across England focused their efforts on the coronavirus booster jab roll-out.
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GP teams up and down the country were urged to free up capacity to deliver Covid vaccinations after the Government’s booster jab campaign was ramped up in December.

A letter from the NHS at the time said this “could include pausing routine and non-urgent care and redeploying staff” to support the rollout.

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NHS Digital figures show 113,102 GP appointments were held across the NHS Wigan Borough CCG area in December. That was 20 per cent fewer than the month before, but 25 per cent more than the 90,829 which took place in December 2020.

Something had to give as surgeries took part in a mass vaccination programme against the Omicron variantSomething had to give as surgeries took part in a mass vaccination programme against the Omicron variant
Something had to give as surgeries took part in a mass vaccination programme against the Omicron variant

Appointments remained below pre-pandemic levels at the end of last year – 115,867 sessions were held in December 2019.

Across England, 25 million GP appointments were held last December – 17 per cent fewer than 30.3 million in November.

However, this was a six per cent rise from 23.7 million in December 2020 and eight per cent higher than in December 2019.

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NHS England said the most recent figures did not include vaccination appointments and walk-ins, with more than six million jabs delivered by primary care networks between December 8 and 31 alone.

An NHS spokeswoman said: “General practice delivered more than 25 million routine appointments – ensuring people received urgent care, support for long-term conditions and cancer care was prioritised – whilst also delivering around half of all booster vaccinations in December, as the NHS answered the Prime Minister’s call to focus all available resource on fighting Omicron.”

NHS England asked GPs to shift their focus back to routine care in late January.

The NHS Digital figures also show that of the consultations held by Wigan GPs in December, 63 per cent were held face to face – down slightly from 65 per cent a month earlier.

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Across England, face-to-face appointments dropped from 63 in November to 61 per cent in December.

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