Portsmouth GP says NHS must do everything it can to help A&E

By The Newsroom
Published 13th Mar 2017, 05:59 BST
Updated 24th Mar 2017, 10:55 BST
A LEADING city GP is calling for '˜everything possible' to be done to stop A&E being people's first choice for health care.

Dr Jim Hogan, a GP at the Lake Road Practice in Portsmouth, said waiting times for specialist appointments and clearing beds of people who are well enough to be discharged are key for improving the emergency department at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham.

His comments come after latest figures from NHS England revealed Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs QA, saw, treated or discharged only 66.7 per cent of patients within the four-hour target in January. The government target is 95 per cent.

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Dr Hogan, who is also chief clinical officer at Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group, said: ‘We know that some people still go to A&E when they would have been better off elsewhere.

‘But the NHS must do everything possible to make sure people don’t feel that A&E is the only choice open to them.’