Doctor, Doctor

Their decision to drop out of hours incenses me. I can understand it - if you were given the option to work less and be paid the same (if not more) wouldn't you take it? I would. But they should not have been give n the choice.

The extra strain on the ambulance service due to people being unable to distinguish between 'an emergency' and 'a cut finger' is entirely the fault of the person whose idea this vote was. I hope they're happy.

Know your post was 3 months ago not, but felt compelled to reply:

They moaned that they were already working 55 hours a week..... and couldn't cope with the 'extra' work....

1. Many doctors do not work 55 hours a week, but this is not because "they rotate their surgeries to work 3/4 days a week (need to get the golf in)". Many are actually employed part time - perhaps this also skews the figures from the CBI's figures? Furthermore those who are employed full time have commitments aside from surgeries - home visits, baby check clinics etc + paperwork - making referrals to specialists, reviewing results of patient investigations.


2. What is the basis for your assertion "millions of days of work lost a year because of inflexible GP hours"? There is no hard data available to support this. If I'm wrong please enlighten me. In my experience most ailments that can be treated at a single GP consultation are not sufficiently severe to justify missing work, or if they warrant absence from work the duration of absence is not influenced by seeing a doctor. Many are self limiting illnesses for which the is no specific treatment (viral infections, mild gastroeneteritis etc).

More appointments would be available for you to book if so many weren't wasted by people who fail to turn up having booked an appointment, not to mention all those who think that a cold justifies a GP appointment.

Simply changing to a shift system would not work in isolation either (without increasing available surgery hours) - there would only be the same number of appointments available each week, just at different times - and as you've stated, they're already booked up each day.

Tell you what could truly benefit the 'health' of the country overall...banning smoking, and people taking responsibility for their own lifestyle and health. Not all illnesses could be prevented or have their incidence reduced, but many of the most costly, in personal and economic terms, could be.

Finally:
"The extra strain on the ambulance service due to people being unable to distinguish between 'an emergency' and 'a cut finger'"

If this is really true then the ambulance service needs to improve the way in which it triages calls.

Getting down off my soap box.