Half of Britons avoid calling GP when they are ill, survey finds
Almost half the public delay or avoid contacting their GP surgery when they are ill, mainly because they think they will struggle to get an appointment.Overall 48% of people across the UK did not bother to ask their family doctor for help – either initially or at all – when they got sick over the past year, a survey found.Just over a quarter (27%) opted to manage the ailment themselves or waited for it to go away, despite doctors fearing that shunning GP care could seriously damage the person’s health.The findings underline the deep public concern about the ability to get fast access to vital NHS services such as A&E, GP care, hospital treatment and an ambulance if they call 999.The large number of people not calling their GP practice emerged in a survey that pollsters Ipsos undertook for the Health Foundation thinktank.
Three in 10 did not expect to be offered a GP appointment at a suitable time and 17% thought contacting their practice would be hard.“General practice is the front door of the health service, and all patients should be able to see their GP when they need to.So it is worrying to hear that some might be delaying or avoiding seeking care because they think getting an appointment will be difficult,” said Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, the chair of the Royal College of GPs.A third of Britons have decided not to go to A&E in the past two years despite needing treatment, because they expected a long delay before being seen, according to separate polling by Savanta, carried out last month for the Liberal Democrats.Helen Maguire, a Lib Dem health spokesperson, said: “Patients deserve so much better.
It is heartbreaking to think of elderly people or parents with sick children sitting at home in pain because they have lost faith that the system will be there for them.”The thinktank said the findings should “ring alarm bells” about the government’s plan to move a lot of healthcare from hospitals into community settings, one of the “three big shifts” in its 10-year plan for transforming the NHS in England.“Persistent public concerns about problems in general practice and A&E – the ‘front doors’ of the NHS – mean policymakers may need to reassess their priorities”, it added.Ipsos’s representative survey of 2,214 adults, undertaken in December, uncovered widespread gloom and pessimism about the state of the NHS.It also found that:Faster access to GPs and A&E are the public’s top priorities for the NHS.
Only 32% believe the NHS provides a good service nationally.42% think the standard of NHS care has worsened over the past year and only 12% think that it has improved.47% fear NHS care will decline further over the next year and just 15% expect it to get betterWes Streeting, the health secretary in England, and his counterparts in Edinburgh and Cardiff will be concerned that only 15% of the public think the government in their nation is pursuing the right policies to revive the health service.Far more – 54% – disagree.The findings emerged as Streeting published the new GP contract that sets out what types of care family doctors in England will provide during 2025-26.
It obliges GP practices to see all patients with urgent medical needs on the day they get in touch and has reallocated £300m of funding to let surgeries hire 1,600 more doctors.Dr Katie Bramall, the chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said: “Hard-working family doctors will be deeply concerned about setting up even more unrealistic expectations of unlimited same‑day urgent care provision alongside potential barriers being put in place around specialist referrals, all while trying to keep practices open and prevent even more surgery closures.”She criticised Streeting for not negotiating the contract with the BMA, as had happened for many years.The health secretary, frustrated at the BMA opposing his plans to give patients online access to GPs during working hours, instead consulted a range of GP and patient bodies.
Qantas unveils bumper $1.46bn profit as Australian travellers shrug off cost-of-living pressures
Qantas has delivered a bumper $1.46bn half-year underlying profit as travellers shrug off cost-of-living pressures to travel within and outside Australia.Australia’s biggest airline credited robust customer demand, new routes and increased flight frequency to “Japan, Bali and across the Tasman”, and more fuel-efficient new aircraft for the strong result, up 5% from a year ago.The chief executive, Vanessa Hudson, is overseeing Qantas’s most expansive fleet-renewal program ever, balancing the huge expenditure required after a prolonged period of under investment.Qantas is replacing its ageing domestic fleet and purchasing long-range planes
Lawyers for US cancer sufferers challenge Bayer’s $7.25bn Roundup settlement deal
A group of 14 law firms representing nearly 20,000 plaintiffs is seeking to intervene in Bayer’s proposed class action settlement of Roundup litigation, citing concerns that the deal will not be fair to cancer sufferers.The group filed both a motion to intervene and a motion for an extension of time for court preliminary approval of the deal in St Louis city circuit court in Missouri late on February 24.The law firms say the deal appears “unprecedented” and raises multiple “red flags”.“It is hard to escape the impression that the proposed settlement would give Monsanto everything it desires – a near-complete release of liability for Monsanto and its parent company, Bayer AG – while giving inadequate consideration to many putative class members, who would surrender their substantive rights in exchange for settlement offers that may never result in payment,” the law firms state in their motion.Bayer and a different group of plaintiffs’ lawyers filed the settlement proposal with the court on 17 February, with a provision to seek preliminary court approval within a 15-day period
Twenty-year-old testifies at US trial about harm from social media addiction
For the first time, a jury will hear testimony on Wednesday from a young woman who alleges social media companies intentionally create addictive products, harming children. The witness taking the stand, known by her initials KGM, is the lead plaintiff in an expansive lawsuit against Meta – which owns Instagram and Facebook – and YouTube currently at trial in Los Angeles.KGM, who is now 20, alleges that she became addicted to social media apps before she was 10 and would spend hours every day scrolling through photos and videos. This led to years of mental health issues, according to her lawyers and court documents.KGM is expected to testify about how her constant use of social media led to depression, anxiety and body dysmorphia
Nvidia quarterly earnings show immunity to AI bubble fears as it cashes in on data center boom
Nvidia released its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, with the chipmaker revealing higher than expected revenues and extending its yearslong streak of surpassing Wall Street’s sky-high expectations.The company receives the vast majority of its revenue from its data center business, which has been buoyed by the tech industry’s immense investment into AI infrastructure. On Wednesday, Nvidia reported 75% year-over-year growth of this vertical to $62.3bn. The world’s most valuable publicly traded company, Nvidia has dominated the chip market as its processing units have become the backbone of the artificial intelligence boom
US hockey star Hilary Knight responds to Trump’s ‘distasteful joke’ about women’s team
Hilary Knight, the captain of the US women’s ice hockey team, has responded to comments made by Donald Trump after the Americans won gold at the Winter Olympics, calling the president’s quip a “distasteful joke”.After the US men’s ice hockey team won gold on Sunday, Trump called into the locker-room celebration and invited the players to be his guests at Tuesday’s State of the Union address.“I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” he said. “You do know that. I do believe I probably would be impeached [if the women’s team wasn’t invited]
Saracens’ salary cap penalty under scrutiny over conflict of interest claims
Saracens will consider their position over an alleged undeclared conflict of interest at the centre of the disciplinary process into the 2019 salary cap scandal. The club were fined an unprecedented £5.36m for salary cap breaches over the previous three seasons and were relegated to the Championship, but the punishment has come under fresh scrutiny with these new allegations.Saracens point to an allegation made about the accounting firm Saffery Champness and claims that the level of fine handed down was “largely based upon advice provided to PRL”.According to the Daily Telegraph, Saffery Champness was auditor for Sale Sharks at the same time that it gave “impartial expert advice” about Saracens
British public want deeper economic ties with EU, business secretary says
Tony Blair’s legacy was the destruction of Labour’s big tent | Letter
Foreign Office denies minister’s claim the Chagos Islands deal has been paused – as it happened
Role of Scotland’s top law officer questioned after ‘bombshell’ over Peter Murrell charges
Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin will not face sanctions over byelection leaflet error
The PM who turned PI: why is Gordon Brown delving so deep into the Epstein files?