BMA: Government must work with GPs to address emergency care issues

The British Medical Association (BMA) has called on the government to cooperate with GPs in order to tackle the current pressures on frontline care.

Dr Laurence Buckman, chair of the BMA's GP committee, has concurred with health secretary Jeremy Hunt's recent observations that the emergency care system is struggling at present, but stated that this is partly due to a wave of reforms and new targets imposed by the government.

These changes mean that many GPs are having to spend time dealing with bureaucracy rather than administering frontline care, while reductions in bed numbers, staff shortages and the botched introduction of the NHS 111 service are also causing problems.

Dr Buckman therefore called on the government to work with  doctors and other healthcare staff to address these issues, rather than being too quick to apportion blame.

He said: "Recent attacks on hardworking NHS staff and specific services have been neither helpful nor productive."

Dr Buckman also called this week for the government to stop using the NHS as a "political weapon" at a time when the future of the health service is under serious threat.