Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
People should take three steps to try to solve a health problem before seeing their GP, a doctors' leader has urged.
Patients should see if they can sort it themselves, see a pharmacist or use a reputable online source of information, the Royal College of GPs says.
GPs "really feel the pinch" over winter because of demand, said chairwoman Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard.
If just 5% of people did not visit their GP, it would "save 50,000 appointments," she told the BBC.
GP leaders say there are not enough family doctors working in England and that practices are closing at an "alarming rate".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42511553
Patients should see if they can sort it themselves, see a pharmacist or use a reputable online source of information, the Royal College of GPs says.
GPs "really feel the pinch" over winter because of demand, said chairwoman Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard.
If just 5% of people did not visit their GP, it would "save 50,000 appointments," she told the BBC.
GP leaders say there are not enough family doctors working in England and that practices are closing at an "alarming rate".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42511553
