In-Person GP Visits Unlikely To Return To Pre-Covid Levels

Family doctors are unlikely to see as many patients face-to-face as they did before the pandemic, a leading GP admitted yesterday.

- Hanna Geissler

The proportion of consultations held in person was 57 per cent in July, down from around 80 per cent before Covid-19 hit.

Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, suggested the current level may become the new normal.

Giving evidence to the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, he said: “A reduction in face-toface from 80 per cent to 56 per cent on average across the country is probably about right.”

The Prime Minister’s spokesman has said the public should be able to choose if they want to see their GP in person, after a barrage of criticism that too many were being denied face-to-face care.

But asked whether patients should have the right to demand it, Prof Marshall told MPs that was “undeliverable”.

He said in-person consultations should be available when clinically necessary but rising demand was making it difficult to deliver the quality of care they would like to.