Coronavirus: Veteran NI GP calls for rethink of strategy to help ‘routine’ patients

A doctor who has almost 40 years’ experience has said now is the time to start beginning to return the levels of NHS care to the pre-lockdown levels.

Dr John Kyle, a PUP councillor for east Belfast and a long-time GP, was speaking to the News Letter to say he is aware of a “significant drop” in people attending his former surgery.

Although he retired from his role as GP at the Lewis Square clinic in east Belfast last year, his daughter still works there and keeps him abreast of the situation.

Dr Kyle said: “The surge hasn’t been of the magnitude that people feared.

“And I think that does call for a re-think now on the part of how we use the resources that we have at our disposal in the health service.

“There is a need for us to begin to get back quite soon to start doing routine work, otherwise people’s health will deteriorate.

“There definitely is a need to rethink the strategy now. Some of the resources that were deployed for the Covid surge need to be redeployed now.”

He has “a measure of concern” that people have simply put up with their ailments rather than visit a doctor.

However GPs are beginning to see a rise now, he believes, simply because patients who have put off seeing the doctor for a few weeks are unable to bear it any longer.

On Tuesday, The Times published a piece by English doctor Mark Porter, in which he voiced similar concerns to Dr Kyle.

He said: “There is growing concern in the NHS about the indirect consequences of the pandemic on the health of the nation. I have already reported that many GP surgeries and hospitals are much quieter than normal.

“And this trend continues. Emergency department attendances are down by at least a third and there are far fewer emergency admissions for everything from gallstones to heart attacks and strokes.”

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