Surgeries could be swamped by hungry patients

Worried medics have warned that GPs’ surgeries could be overwhelmed by hungry people booking appointments just to claim food vouchers.

Doctors are allowed to refer people to receive rations, as can social workers, health visitors and social organisations. But it’s claimed the surging number receiving food handouts are stretching resources to breaking point.

A further rise could have a huge impact on waiting times, Dr John Ip, secretary of the Glasgow Local Medical Committee, has warned.

“Our practices are at bursting point already,” he said. “If we have people making appointments for us to fill in forms and admin rather than having a medical condition, it will mean more even people waiting to get appointments.”

Many GPs are unaware food banks are referring patients until they walk through the surgery doors.

The Paisley doctor added: “If the GPs are seen as a line of defence to make sure people are not fiddling the system, then where is this going to end?

“Access to food is a human right and not a medical condition, and so it is not for a GP to say who should get food.”

Lancashire GP Dr Claire Rushton, vice chair of the Family Doctors’ Association, expressed similar concerns.

She said: “We’re so busy with the number of patients we have that I don’t know how we are going to find the time to see these other patients. The floodgates may open.

“I had one patient at Christmas who asked for a letter to refer her to a food bank to say she was on a low income. I don’t know how much money she had, but how could I have said no? So I signed it.”

The Trussell Trust provides hungry people with vouchers for emergency food supplies to last three days. Last year, a record 350,000 families received help from the charity.

But demand for referrals is expected to rise this year because of low wages and continued hikes in fuel and food prices.

Adrian Curtis, the Trust’s national food bank network director, said: “If GPs feel uncomfortable about referring clients to us because they cannot make a judgment on their social need, then they can refer them to another organisation.”

Michael Matheson, the Minister for Public Health in Scotland, said: “While GPs in Scotland are not expected to assess eligibility for food banks, this just further demonstrates the increased pressure welfare reforms are placing on the Health Service and the Scottish population. It shows the adverse impact on families who are increasingly being forced to rely on food banks. That is unacceptable in a country as prosperous as Scotland.”

A spokesman for NHS England said: “It is up to individual practices to choose to participate in food bank schemes.”

Respected medical magazine Pulse recently reported that GPs were being placed in an “impossible position” by patients asking for food vouchers.

The piece sparked a flurry of comments from doctors.

One GP wrote: “Just wrote a pro forma letter that states, ‘My patient tells me that he is hungry, and I have no reason to disbelieve him’.”

Another wrote: “We don’t do such letters as 1) We have no way of verifying the patient’s circumstances.

2) It’s not a medical problem.

3) Because it’s not GMS work.

4) Because it hinders the care we provide to patients with genuine medical problems.

“We explain the situation to the person concerned and then follow with a stern letter to the organisation in question asking them to sort this out themselves.”

Doctors have warned the soaring number of people relying on food banks is becoming a “national emergency.”

A group of health officials and scientists writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) said child malnutrition was rising because of welfare cuts.

Up to a million hungry people in Britain could have used food banks by the end of 2014, the Trussell Trust said.

Headed by Medical Research Council scientist, Dr David Taylor-Robinson, the experts told the BMJ last month that the number of people being issued with food bank vouchers had risen “exponentially”.

They said: “This has all the signs of a public health emergency that could go unrecognised until it is too late.”

At the time, a Government spokesman claimed there was no “robust” proof the cuts were driving people to food banks.

Patients are already waiting for weeks to see their GP.

NHS rules state they must be given access to doctors or nurses within 48 hours. But a Sunday Post investigation in 2012 discovered one woman who phoned more than 100 times without success in an effort to see her doctor. Others were waiting up to a fortnight.

Critics claim delays caused by GPs being swamped with requests for food bank referrals could increase waiting times even further.