WOTTON under Edge GP Dr Mark Porter has highlighted the spike in demand for GPs’ services as the country comes out of lockdown.

Dr Porter, who is a part time partner at the Culverhay Surgery in Wotton, and also a medical journalist with the BBC and the Times, said that although there was a quiet period at the start of lockdown, the last couple of months had been some of the busiest of his career.

“We did have a quiet period back in April and May - when many of our patients thought we were closed, did not “want to bother us” or were worried about catching Covid - but those days are long gone,” he said.

“Indeed the last couple of months have been among the busiest of my career.

“Yesterday my first home visit was at 7.30am and I left work 11 hours later after a day when the phone never stopped ringing.

“And some of my colleagues are doing even longer shifts.

“We are medium sized practice (11,500 patients) but in the last three days have managed 750 consultations, 300 of which were face-to-face (in the surgery or on home visits).

“And we had many more calls and queries that did not require a consultation, with some larger practices in the county dealing with over a 1,000 enquiries a day.”

Dr Porter said that surgeries were slowly getting on top of the backlog created during lockdown, but that GPs are now worried about how they will cope if the rise in demand continues into the colder months.

“Much of the extra demand, at what is typically the quietest time of year for GP surgeries, has been because of the backlog created during lockdown - and we are slowly getting on top of it,” he said.

“However all practices are now worrying about how they will cope if this continues through the autumn and into winter when, Covid or no Covid, we are always stretched.”