The NHS employs some of the world’s foremost medical experts. So why aren’t GPs taking more advantage of it?

20 April 2025, 11:46

I’ve been an A&E doctor. Some of the best experts in a dizzying array of medical fields work in our NHS.

The pool of skills and talent that work under its umbrella is one of the greatest resources our country has. In fact I wouldn’t have been able to do my job if I didn't have that expertise at my fingertips.

On a busy Saturday night shift I might see a dislocated shoulder, someone with a suspected heart attack and a stabbing within the first two hours; there is no way I’d have been able to provide the best care without orthopaedic, cardiac and trauma specialists available to help.

So why hasn’t this collective pool of knowledge been leveraged more widely, so that people can benefit from it before even getting to hospital?

This is the theory behind a new government initiative that ministers hope will keep two million people out of hospital by giving them access to specialist knowledge without having to be admitted.

The plan works like this: GPs will be paid to seek specialist advice themselves rather than referring their patients for appointments, blood tests or scans.

The plan is aimed at avoiding ‘unnecessary’ appointments that could be handled outside of hospital, by giving GPs access to an ‘advice and guidance system’ for issues like stomach problems, ear, nose and throat issues and women struggling with symptoms of the menopause.

I’ve seen the NHS crisis first-hand, spending several years in a busy A&E ward in London. I know the problems it faces but also the absolute wealth of talent and skill it has at its disposal.

But the healthcare industry as a whole is becoming increasingly sub-specialised. With all the benefits this brings for patients, unfortunately, this means that no GP, doctor, or specialist can be an expert in everything - and as a result we see patients struggling to get access to the specific care they need.

What I was struck by during my time at the NHS and later in healthcare consulting is that the culture of sharing advice and guidance within healthcare is strong at hospital-level, but when you go down the pyramid to general practitioner-level, the support network and direct line to specialist help is just not there.

Our GPs do a phenomenal job at helping patients with a whole host of medical problems, but there is a point at which they are no longer best fit to diagnose and treat these issues on their own.

Labour’s plan is based on sound theory and is a step in the right direction. Like me, they’ve seen that sharing expert knowledge across the NHS is essential to helping it do more with less. The question however still remains how exactly their system will work.

I know personally that getting clinicians to work together and building the technology to facilitate that is incredibly difficult, so I look forward to more meat on the bones of how they plan to achieve it.

Collaborative healthcare is not a new concept. But a support network that allows GPs to communicate directly with a specialist, even for peace of mind, will no doubt drastically improve GP confidence and hopefully reduce hospital referrals as our practitioners will feel more empowered in their decision making.

And the support network won’t just improve outcomes for patients and reduce waiting lists. It also improves the mental welfare of GPs. In dentistry, there's an epidemic of loneliness because the profession can be solitary. We’ve found that collaborative healthcare and practitioners sharing knowledge with specialists can act as an antidote to that kind of professional loneliness. We’re turning peers into colleagues.

In fact, I’d like to see the government expand this initiative beyond just GPs. At 32Co we’ve been doing that already. In the UK, there are only 1,300 specialist orthodontists in the UK for 60 million people, that means many people are travelling hundreds of miles for an appointment.

There was a story last week about a man making a thousand-mile journey across the UK for a single appointment - or even going abroad for risky cosmetic dental treatments, often with unsatisfactory outcomes.

We live in an era where people are increasingly self-diagnosing using the internet; turning to online treatments or simply unable to access expert level care.

And it’s only getting worse. It’s essential that healthcare systems share experience broadly and efficiently.

Dr Sonia Szamocki is a former NHS doctor and founder & CEO of collaborative healthcare company 32co

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