Currently, GP practices are supposed to be open from 8am until 6.30pm daily.
But doctors attending the British Medical Association’s conference of local committees next month are to vote on cutting back standard hours by two and half hours.
The changes would mean routine hours of 9am to 5pm, with GPs paid extra rates for working outside those times.
Given that the majority of GPs now are part timers this does seem a little excessive as a demand, yes?
Lots of people work core hours depending upon what the job considers being core hours. Some people like to start earlier, others later. It’s not beyond the wit of man to have a GP’s practice open from 07:00 to 22:00 with just one GP on at the start and end of the day with the rest covering the core hours.
Having stated the above as being not beyond the wit of man, it’s almost certainly beyond the the wit of the BMA however.
I actually would have no problem with paying overtime rates but only when the doctors in question have already worked the full 9 to 5 shift for the full 5 days each week (like the rest of the working population is generally obliged to do). If this means more surgeries being open and staffed at weekends plus more GP’s doing out of hours home visits then bring it on.
That’s not going to happen though and as the undeniable priority of all aspects of the nhs is feathering its own diverse and inclusive nest we, the mere patients, will have to shut up and keep paying for the dammed thing.
Currently suffering through a rather severe shoulder rotor cuff injury and I must say that it is easier to get an audience with the Pope than a face-to-face appointment with ANY of the GP’s at my local practice.
I am incandescent with anger, but not particularly surprised.
Time the Health Secretary did his job. Maggie brought the miners to heel, he needs to do the same to the GPs.
Wot?! Every Wednesday?!
(Following the shop steward’s announcement of the newly negotiated six day weekend.)
GPs should be paid per patient visit and not by virtue of the size of their lists. You should be able to find yourself a doctor on checkatrade.
JuliaM,
An interesting thing I’m observing (after an online argument with someone) is how much the government is starting to let pharmacies do things. Like if you have a UTI, you fill out an online questionnaire, pay £25 and just get the medicine sent to you.
I suspect there’s a quiet plan going on with this. Don’t try and reform the NHS, just let Boots, Lloyds, Superdrug do more of the work for a fee. They’ll figure out how to optimise the clinical time in the process better than the NHS, so the only thing you have doctors or nurses doing is being doctors or nurses.
Eventually, they run nearly all of the GP stuff and you start closing down the surgeries as they’re empty and no-one cares.
GP practices are supposed to be open from 8am until 6.30pm daily.
If they bucked up, most of them could get a whole week’s work done in one day.
Once my parents came into their later years, the utter uselessness of GPs became abundantly clear to me. The useless shits who infested my later father’s practice were about as much use to him as a fucking witch doctor.
My mother has had a few health problems this year and her GP practice overall has been crap. There’s one or two decent doctors but the system is crap and it is virtually impossible to get hold of the fuckers. Never mind see them, it’s 99% telephone consultations.
Earlier this year she had to make two visits to A&E where, despite being run off their feet, the staff were much more helpful and made the effort to push the rusty wheels of the NHS to get her dealt with in good time. I am sure these doctors earn far less and work twice as hard as GPs.
Envy of the world….
In the John Varley ‘verse, “medicos” are seen as something equivalent to service station attendants. There are convesations along the lines of:
Child: I wanna be a medico!
Teacher: Don’t be silly, you’re going to go to university and get a proper job.
Medico: (thinks) Not my fault I aint got no education, I’m good wiv me hands I am, being a medico’s a decent enuf job.
@MC absolutely – I used to have a good dentist who would have three patients on the go concurrently in three rooms with three assistants who would do the pre- and post-appointment admin/chat/etc. He flitted between the three rooms doing the actual dentistry. GPs need to follow this model; just avoiding the chit chat would save them half their time. But I think we have a larger problem with GPs, which is that they are overpayed, and so when they get to 55 their pension pots are maxed out and they have almost no choice (financially) but to retire.
The changes would mean routine hours of 9am to 5pm
And there I was thinking they ran their own businesses…
And what MC said, there are lots of excellent doctors but – following years of either neglect or wilful damage – the system is completely broken.
You should be able to find yourself a doctor on checkatrade.
Was it Bit4R I recall recounting a ligament issue or something? In the Reich. 1st GP down the street was busy, 2nd no problem? MRI/surgery all then subsequently done and dusted in a relative heart beat.
The Tories have been useless layabouts for many years. All the Socialist crap dropped by Blair, Brown and the EU still clogs up the system as the bastards are too idle to think up something better.
PF, here in Clogland I had occasion to visit my GP last week. Phoned at 9am, appointment at 11.10am same day. Waited in waiting room until 11.15, GP (lovely lass) came out and apologised profusely for making me wait. At GP in UK I would be lucky to see him within half an hour of the scheduled appointment time.
Just introduce what happens in other European Countries, GPs & other providers get paid a fee per patient and according to treatment/test. No patient, no money.
Under this system GPs can work whatever hours they like, or not at all. It depends whether they want to eat.
FTFY
Ever since Labour stuffed their mouths with gold when forming the NHS a precedent was set that doctors had to be bribed whenever NHS reform was needed. Blair was particularly egregious in how much he gave them, he probably had a lot of doctor friends.
Expecting anything but mercenary tactics from them is naive, all they want here is even more money for doing less and they know they’ve got the government over the proverbial barrel flowing Covid.
The BMA is just a leftie trade union. They therefore want to defend laziness while maximising pay.
When Nye Bevan said he stuffed the doctors’ mouths with gold, I don’t think he anticipated just how long the stuffing would continue.
two aspirins,
“@MC absolutely – I used to have a good dentist who would have three patients on the go concurrently in three rooms with three assistants who would do the pre- and post-appointment admin/chat/etc. He flitted between the three rooms doing the actual dentistry. GPs need to follow this model; just avoiding the chit chat would save them half their time. But I think we have a larger problem with GPs, which is that they are overpayed, and so when they get to 55 their pension pots are maxed out and they have almost no choice (financially) but to retire.”
I’ll bet that UTI thing at Boots or Superdrug is fully automated except for the bit of showing the questionnaire to the doctor and giving them yes or no buttons. or some sort of approval code to enter. Sure, a doctor has to approve the prescription, but what are they doing that isn’t that? You want to cut that out of the process. Once clicked, it gets saved, printed, enveloped and sent out automatically.
It’s easy to see a GP in the UK, you just have to pay – nobody thinks twice about paying £80 for a dental checkup. BUPA offer a nationwide service, and here in S Bucks we have DoctorNow in Beaconsfield. It costs less than taking your car in for a service and you get a 30 minute appointment and can easily see the same doctor each time. I still have to pay for the utterly useless NHS, though.
“It’s easy to see a GP in the UK, you just have to pay”
It’s not that easy. I didn’t use NHS GPs for my last 20 years in the UK (>2008). But I found a local London GP was willing to take me on as a patient. Used to cost me £50 or so a visit. Cash. The brief 10 months I spent UK side, a few years back, I couldn’t find one. Must have rung a couple dozen surgeries in Sussex. I ended up seeing a GP in Lille. It was quicker & easier.
I often wonder how many health niggles escalate to serious because workers can’t see GP without taking 1/2 day holiday
@Grist
+1
Private GPs have become more widespread in the last decade or so, BiS. As the state fails, private enterprise steps in to fill the gap.