GP Hours

[bpr]

Am I the only one who is utterly fuming after reading some of the utterly ignorant comments on the BBC website about the Governments push to increase GP hours?

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thre...20080204101943

[kofi]

F*** the private sector, F*** the government, the NHS should stay public,

the private sectors hand should be removed from up the governments ass

[Tyraell]

This one really made me laugh:

GPs are a useless but greedy bunch in the main. They often don't know what's wrong with us and just dish out aspirin, tranquillisers and happy pills to keep the old folks and dole bludgers off their backs.

The government should cut back on their pay and tell them when they should work. If they don't like it they can always get another job (as those of us in the private sector are often told) - somehow I don't think they will all be leaving for new careers with £100K salaries.

I wouldn't know where to begin in responding to that...


[edit]

100th post! Go ME!

[LeonKurosaki]

quite a few comments there are complaining about GPs salary, (no offense to TESCO, just an example) like "i work in tesco during nights and my salary is a tenth of what a GP earns", although it is tough to work nights, i ve done night and i hate it lol, but we cannot undermine the fact that GPs do ahve lots of responsibilities to take care of

[Polaris87]

I'm sure there are probably a fair few like this :

they should cover 24/7 365 days a year and be on the minium wage £5.52 double time for sundays they are paid far to much for the job they do this is why they do not want to work pay them less and then they will have to do over time to make their money up

I work in a call centre and I earn above the minimum wage, and it didn't require 4/5 years of university to get the job. Pay is generally proportional to the skills required. 100K is a lot of money, maybe slightly excessive, but with that comes a lot of responsibility, dealing with difficult people and making hard life-changing decisions.

[graceunderpressure]

Does everyone have access to OOH GP services? I thought they did, they do here. Most GPs in our area do OOH work. I don't think many of these people know what they are talking about.

[NorthernLight]

People have fallen quite unbelievably for the constant drip of anti-GP propaganda which seems to infect all news and comment outlets these days. here's another example . . .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...252578,00.html

The problem is, as doctors we are going to be paid out of public funds and we need to be better (pay attention BMA!) at getting the truth out there and not looking like self-interested, self-protectionist lazy gits.
We all know there are exceptions, but the fact is most doctors - GPs as much as anyone else - work long hours, care about their patients and do their best in quite trying circumstances. But you need to ask - why are there people out there who now resent doctors and think we should all get by on the minimum wage?
Btw, if I knew the answer, I'd let the BMA know.....

[gimperial99]

Hi Graceunderpressure.
The new GP contract of 2004 took the onus of providing OOH services from the practice and gave it to the PCT. To be relieved of that burden GPs lost on average £6,000 a year that is no more than half the real value. They could, in theory, continue to provide OOH serices but such quality issues as how many times the phone rings before it is answered make this almost impossible. However, the OOH service can have dedicated doctors or daytime GPs doing a few shifts. They do not need to do many a month to get their money back.

The new contract resulted in most practices stopping Saturday morning surgery although a significant number had already stopped.

I think the new contrat has resulted in GPs working fewer hours but perhaps more intensively. Targets are an important feature. Pay has risen substantially but it was about time.

No one complains about taking time off work to see a dentist, solicitor, accountant or to have an eye test. Supermarkets are open 24 hours a day but it is not the same person at the checkout. Continuity of care in general practice is important.

The government is struggling in opinion polls and so trying to look tough. MPs are due to vote their own pay rise soon. They have been most generous with other people's money in recent years. Lets see if this generousity continues.

I thought they had already voted for the inflation increase?

Perhaps the answer is to go the way of the dentist, solicitor and accountant, that is not work for the Government?

[kiya]

I'm always incensed by the idiotic, ill-informed comments posted on the BBC's website about GPs. In fact, I rarely read them anymore.

I can only go on my experience of a GP I know, who doesn't earn anywhere near £100k, who provides some OOH care and is at work from 7.30am til 9pm during the week and there every Saturday and most Sundays too. He works damn hard and for the good of his patients, irrespective of whether they appreciate it or not.

What I don't get is why a proportion of the general public are up in arms over GP pay and not the incredibly (unjustifiable) salaries paid to entertainers like footballers. What doctor would work for minimum wage with all the responsibility, stress, targets etc. that comes with the job?? For the same pay they could have a far easier and less stressful life working in Asda. If all doctors did that, we'd be in seriously deep doo-doos with regard to our health in this country. I wonder if the idiotic 'Have Your Say' posters have thought of that...?

[DanDeLions]

GPs are in a position of some authority and great responsibility. Ultimately they have to live with the fact that their actions (or lack thereof), carried out on a daily basis, can have severe consequences for many many people, possibly resulting in an early or even sudden death.
Compare such a position with that in the private sector, others in charge of so many people. Remember that GP partners are also responsible for running their own businesses.
I agree that they recieve fairly large salaries, but when compared with
other in equivilent positions for example, directors and chief execs, it becomes apparent that perhaps the payscale isn;t so unfairly balanced.

I sincerely hope that the doctors we have are not simply in it for the money, instead for many other reasons such as the love of helping people and doing good deeds. However, at the back of some peoples minds there must be the thought of the salary....if GPs were paid substantially less than others of such standing in other fields then I believe that we would lose many of the most gifted people who know that they could earn many times over elsewhere, for example the private sector. Surely we want to keep the most gifted, astute, and perceptive people in this field...working as doctors for ourselves? And thus the salary is in some way justified