Essex Health directors have admitted that the 8am phone rush 'has to change' in order to meet demand for GPs.

The Essex Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee heard that while there was a reduction in demand on primary care services during lockdown, demand has significantly increased compared to pre pandemic (2019/20) numbers.

In Mid and South Essex, an additional 314,000 appointments were undertaken in 2021/22.

The current demand for GPs has been described as "unprecedented".

William Guy, director of primary care for Mid and South Essex, told the committee last Friday (June 10): "It is challenging for our population to get access to primary care, and I think we need to acknowledge that that is the situation."

The total number of GP consultations in Mid and South Essex went from 5,772,059 in 2019/220 to 6,086,126 in 2021/22.

Stress on GP services has come despite a sharp decrease in face-to-face appointments, from 83% in 2019/20 to 65% in 2021/22. Telephone appointments have gone from 11% to 30% during that time.

The GP workforce has remained relatively stable in numbers in West, Mid, and South Essex.

But Mr Guy says increase in demand needs to be met with changes in the way people try to get an appointment in the first place; specifically, the notorious rush at 8am when the appointment telephone lines open.

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He said: "We've got to develop a system that can cater for the needs that present so the patients have got confidence that they can access services at a different time and get a response

"At the moment patients quite rightly are calling at 8am because they believe that's the only way they're going to be able to access primary care. You sit on the telephone and then keep redialling until you get through.

"It will take time to do that but we've got to move away from that everybody presenting at eight o'clock in the morning or we'll never be able to tackle demand at that point. Even if we had lots more call handlers it would still be a very warped system to try to manage."