The emergency department at Addenbrooke’s Hospital could be “swamped” with patients if GPs go on strike, hospital bosses have warned.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), which runs Addenbrooke’s and The Rosie hospitals, said more people will go to A&E if there is a “significant withdrawal of labour” by GPs.
The GP members of the British Medical Association (BMA) are in dispute with NHS England over contract changes that have been imposed by the government.
The BMA has said that the current contract does not address issues around helping practices to recruit more family doctors.
It warned that industrial action could take place unless “urgent improvements are made to the contract”.
At a CUH board meeting on May 8, medical director Dr Ashley Shaw said: “I think the risk is very real. If there is a significant withdrawal of labour by general practice, with the scale of patients seen in the various forms of general practices, that could have a significant impact on flow and attendance in the emergency department.
“This is not something formally raised with me [by the Integrated Care Board], but it could quite rapidly have a significant impact on the number of patients attending the department.
“Even a one-per cent change in the community could swamp us - it could be as small as that.
“We have seen in recent years the behaviour of some members of the population change, if they cannot get a general practice appointment in a very timely fashion they take themselves along to the emergency department.”
The meeting heard the proportion of people going to A&E seen within four hours had risen from 63.5 per cent in February to 71.4 per cent in March.
Jon Scott, chief operating officer at CUH, said there had been “significant improvement” but noted the hospital was still seeing a “relatively high number” of people coming to A&E - up about 41 patients per day compared to last year.
The ability to move people out of A&E “continued to be compromised” due to a high number of inpatients, the board heard.
In March, 126 beds were occupied by patients after they were ready to be discharged, primarily due to them waiting for care at home packages to be ready.
Mr Scott said there had been “some improvement in the number of people waiting for social care” and said CUH was looking at what it could do to address any internal issues causing delays to discharge.
