Decline in NHS beds increases pressure on GPs

Empirical evidence supports claims that declining NHS long term provision for elderly people has increased general practitioners’ workload. On p 322, Kavanagh and Knapp show that, because people cared for in NHS inpatient beds in 1986 had significantly more morbidity and disability than people in residential and nursing homes at that time, their predicted use of general practitioners was also significantly greater (equivalent to 160 additional general practitioners in Britain today). The roles of general practitioners as independent contractors and of primary care groups in caring for residential and nursing home residents need to be clarified and developed.