Parliament debates face-to-face GP appointments following campaign set up in memory of Boston-area woman

The campaign was launched in the form of a petition following the death of hospital worker and mother-of-three Laura Barlow.

Laura, of Sibsey, died from cancer at the start of last year, aged just 33.

In the previous October, Laura contacted her GP practice after experiencing severe stomach pains and finding blood in her stool.

She was diagnosed, over the phone, with endometriosis, her family say. However, in mid-January, after her health had worsened, it was discovered she had bowel and liver cancer. She died just weeks later on February 5.

Her family argue that if she had received a face-to-face appointment in October 2023, the misdiagnosis may not have taken place. This, they say, may not have saved her life, but it could have given them more time together.

While the original wording of the petition called for face-to-face consultations in all GP appointments, the ongoing campaign has focused more on ensuring GPs offer one.

By the end of last year, the number of signatures on the petition has soared past the 100,000 mark. Today, it stands at more than 160,000.

The campaign was brought before the House of Commons by MP for Boston and Skegness Richard Tice.

In his opening address, he spoke about Laura’s final months and the campaign that followed her death.

He added: “It is worth looking at the context of face-to-face appointments in our healthcare system. Going back some six years to 2019, around 80 per cent of all GP appointments were face to face. According to NHS England, for the last two months, the figure is just over 64 per cent. How do we compare to other nations? In European nations with different healthcare systems, the average is 84 per cent or 85 per cent. We have some 20 per cent fewer face-to-face appointments than some of our international peers.

“I am just a layman, not a doctor, but it must be common sense that an experienced, highly skilled, professional GP looking a patient in the eye to physically assess them face-to-face must give patients the greatest chance of a correct diagnosis. Sometimes, a GP will spot something that the patient was not even aware of.”

During the debate, he called on the Government to support GPs to see more patients face to face, such as through freeing them up from paperwork.

“It would be a tribute to Laura – it would be her legacy – for patients to have the right to see a GP face to face,” he said. “Easing the processes would make life easier for GPs and would make them want to stay in the profession, because they know that face to face they will achieve a great and noble cause and good.”

In reply, the Minister for Care Stephen Kinnock expressed sympathy to Laura’s family for their loss, and stressed the importance of face-to-face appointments and the new Labour Government’s wish to improve the situation.

He said: “GPs must provide face-to-face appointments, alongside remote consultations. Online services must always be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, in-person consultations. Patients have a right to request a face-to-face appointment, and practices must make every effort to meet their preference unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary, such as in cases where the patient tests positive for an infectious disease.”

He added: “It is possible that, in some practices, defaulting to remote appointments was a temporary and necessary measure during the pandemic, but in some cases, that may have become a habit that has become difficult to shake. Let us be clear that this is not the fault of GPs per se; it is the fault of the last Government, which left them underfunded, understaffed and in crisis. That is why we are doing everything we can to remedy the downward spiral that GP services have found themselves in after 14 years of Tory neglect and failure.”

Laura’s widower Mike, 52, watched the debate from the House of Commons public gallery.

On seeing the campaign reach that level, he said: “I’m pleased it got where I wanted it to be, it’s been heard.”

“It’s not just about Laura, it’s about everyone else,” he added in reference to the hundreds of messages from people, based across the country, who have lost a loved one following an over-the-phone misdiagnosis.

On the minister’s support for face-to-face appointments, he said: “I’m over the moon with what he said and what he is going to do. I’m hoping he is going to stick to his words.”

He added he would be keeping an eye on the data to ensure more people are being seen face-to-face by GPs, while also maintaining pressure on health authorities to improve the situation.

“I will keep pushing,” he said.