{"id":129958,"date":"2025-09-11T13:10:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T13:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/129958\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T13:10:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T13:10:31","slug":"mp-calls-for-action-after-gps-stop-follow-up-blood-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/129958\/","title":{"rendered":"MP calls for action after GPs stop follow-up blood tests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Historically, GP practices in the area have provided this type of care locally so that patients do not have to travel to hospital for routine procedures.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  But from this week, some GP surgeries have stopped providing this type of work due to huge pressures.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Speaking today, Tim said: \u201cBe in no doubt, this decision is a direct result of our GP surgeries being cut to the bare bone.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThis is a completely unacceptable situation with vulnerable, sick and often elderly patients being forced to travel long distances just for a blood test.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThe Government make a huge song and dance about all the money they are putting into the NHS, and yet the reality for people here in Cumbria is staggeringly different.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ve written to the Health Secretary, asking him to urgently look at this.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsandstar.co.uk\/news\/25366010.change-local-gp-surgeries-significant-increase-work\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The move follows the decision of some GP surgeries to serve notice on a local &#8216;secondary care workload agreement&#8217;,<\/a> which had temporarily allowed general practice to support hospital services with specific tasks.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Tasks previously carried out under the agreement included ECG and physical health monitoring for people prescribed specialist mental health medication, pre-operative and post-operative blood tests, post-operative wound care, chemotherapy-related blood testing, and blood monitoring for specialist biological therapies.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The decision follows a \u2018significant and ongoing rise\u2019 in appointment requests and clinical tasks made on behalf of other healthcare providers\u2014particularly hospital and specialist teams according to the health service.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Dr Robert Westgate, a Carlisle GP and chair of the North Cumbria Local Medical Committee, said: \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a significant increase in work passed from other parts of the health system to GPs, including prescriptions, referrals and test follow-ups that fall outside the scope of our contracts.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThis is something we now need to address, not to pass on responsibility, but to ensure that general practice can remain safe, available and sustainable for the future.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  READ\u00a0MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsandstar.co.uk\/news\/25439549.carlisle-woman-abbies-adventures-becomes-tiktok-travel-influencer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carlisle woman &#8216;Abbie&#8217;s Adventures&#8217; becomes TikTok travel influencer | News and Star<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThese changes will ensure patients still receive the care they need\u2014often more directly from the specialist service managing their condition.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWe will continue to work constructively with our colleagues across health and care settings to support patients appropriately.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The department for health and social care was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Historically, GP practices in the area have provided this type of care locally so that patients do not&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-129958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}