If general practice fails, the whole NHS fails

[Northerner]

Anyone who has visited their GP recently will be aware of the pressures: the struggle to get an appointment, the difficulty of seeing the same GP more than once, the rush to get you out of the door for the next patient.

The crisis in general practice is unprecedented. The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, fails to understand the seriousness of the situation facing general practice in England.

There are now 8,000 GP practices in England – one in 20 has disappeared since 2010. The rate of loss of local surgeries has increased. There has been a fivefold rise in the number of GP surgeries approaching senior NHS managers for advice about shutting their doors or merging with nearby practices. Furthermore, a freedom of information request by Pulse magazine revealed 58 practices closed in 2016, with a further 34 shutting because of mergers.

https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2017/apr/08/general-practice-fails-nhs-fails

 

[mikeyB]

This problem is the end result of arrangements made for GPs when the NHS was first set up. This left GPs as private contractors - this was a sop to bring them on board. That is why you have GP "partnerships" - the amount of money made by the practice being divided among the partners. This still applies. If a GP practice wants an extra doctor, the practice has to take on extra patients to keep up the income, so the extra doctor doesn't relieve the workload. The simple answer is to make all GPs salaried, just as hospital doctors are, but no GP would agree to that, not in England anyway.

 

[grovesy]

This problem is the end result of arrangements made for GPs when the NHS was first set up. This left GPs as private contractors - this was a sop to bring them on board. That is why you have GP "partnerships" - the amount of money made by the practice being divided among the partners. This still applies. If a GP practice wants an extra doctor, the practice has to take on extra patients to keep up the income, so the extra doctor doesn't relieve the workload. The simple answer is to make all GPs salaried, just as hospital doctors are, but no GP would agree to that, not in England anyway.

My surgery has a couple of salaried GP's they have had them a few years.