An analysis by the Health Foundation charity has found around a third of GPs who run their practice on their own are at high risk from the virus themselves.
If they are forced to abandon face-to-face consultations the charity warned it could deny 710,000 patients access to their doctor.
Dr Rebecca Fisher, senior policy fellow at the Health Foundation and a GP said: “The ongoing risk of Covid-19 to the safety of both patients and GPs means hundreds of thousands of people may find it much harder to get a face-to-face GP appointment.
“It’s particularly worrying that GPs at higher risk from Covid-19 are far more likely to be working in areas of high deprivation. Those are precisely the areas with the greatest health need, the biggest burden from Covid-19, and an existing under-supply of GPs relative to need. Unless urgent action is taken this could become another way in which poorer communities become further disadvantaged, and risks further widening health inequalities.”
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Source: The Independent, 6 August 2020
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