Doctors Available 7 Days ?

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32810368

This 7 days a week plan is already starting to unravel. Its seems the BMA isn't keen :::

"David Cameron needs to "get real" and ditch his "surreal obsession" with opening GP surgeries seven days a week, a senior GPs' representative says"

My own GP Practise has been trying to replace their 3rd Doctor, since he retired 2 years ago and has had no luck whatsoever..#

Maybe dave will have to stuff the Doctors mouths with gold again, just like my Avatar did in 1948 !

But where is the gold going to come from this time ?

[jno]

perhaps people who benefit from British medical training could be bonded to work for the NHS for x years before they go off to stuff their own mouths with gold abroad. (Brown poured money into their pockets a few years ago but it didn't make mine work any longer or better.)

I'm not sure what the problem is - I understood that medical schools rejected students because they didn't have the facilities to teach them all; but maybe that's changed?

[mallyh]

stop foreign aid and put the money into NHS.

[ummmm]

My GPs is open six days a week...two of those days until 8:30.

[Retrochic]

People need to be educated not to bother the Doctor for things easily medicated at home,then there would be more time for people with real problems.

[mikey4444]

I recall one of my favourite quotes, from my Avatar::

"Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune, the cost of which should be shared by the community"

[Old_Geezer]

It's a worthy aim, but for most A&E covers, or since the fuss of later years, whatever they have put in to replace it when it isn't an E or even an A.

Every news report I hear from the media seems to suggest GP jobs are gold plated money mines compared to anything available to me. If places can not be filled then there must be some other reason than financial reward. Unsure what it is though.

[Retrochic]

Old_Geezer its probably the prospect of spending your working life treating snotty kids and hypochondriacs who know more about Pharmaceuticals and their administration than you do. It would drive me potty.

[jno]

my GP's open Thursday till 8 - though if there's nobody waiting after about 7 he just goes home, so turning up with a problem at 7.45 is likely to be pointless. Plus he closes Tuesday afternoon.

[mikey4444]

Ummm...you are jolly lucky...my GP isn't open until 09:00 !

[Old_Geezer]

Yeah but then after a few years you can early retire to Spain and live the life of Riley !

[whiskeryron]

The problem is of course that politicians can say & promise anything they like, getting things actually done is completely another matter. When are people going to actually realise that to-days politicians who choose politics as a career & take it up straight from college do not have a clue how the real world works in practice.

[Baldric]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/05/19/01/28D6326800000578-3087091-image-a-2_1431996001429.jpg

[bazwillrun]

And the as ever laborious labour party would have done what exactly ?....

"My own GP Practise has been trying to replace their 3rd Doctor, since he retired 2 years ago and has had no luck whatsoever.."

totally pointless statement, we have no idea what reputation etc the surgery and its staff have, maybe theres a reason they cant replace the GP...

[bazwillrun]

"Yeah but then after a few years you can early retire to Spain and live the life of Riley ! "

or in the case of my GP...go back to Zimbabwe and rake in the money that his practice he owns there and its 5 GPs employs.....

[fraserstuart]

mixed across uk in my neck of the woods gp are available 5 days a week i could never understand why the waiting room normally had 4 or 5 waiting and it takes 3 weeks to get an appointment since found all doctors are part time they have it all worked out amongst them, great work and they say docs are overworked

[youngmafbog]

Its gps that need to get real

Surgeries need to be open for those tgat work, not those tgat dont

My surgeryis actuallyexcellent. Surgeriesfrom7:30 unti8:00. Also online booking system.

Mostpeope whomoan they cannit get appointment actually mean they cant get one with a gp of their choice. Clearly going forward having your 'own'Gp is not going to be practical.

Giving the GP more money will nit fix it as pointed out Brown tried that.

[New Judge]

“Brown poured money into their pockets a few years ago but it didn't make mine work any longer or better.”

Well it wouldn’t have done, jno. In return or an almost doubling of their pay GPs were allowed to opt out of providing out of hours care.

You are very fortunate, ummm. I’d be happy with a five day service. My surgery (at least six doctors, three nurses, a “practice manager” and three receptionists) opens 8:30 to 12:30 and 2:00 to 5:30, but has “half day closing” on Wednesday. Between the dozen or so staff they cannot manage to open at lunch time. They will not take a blood sample (patients have to trudge off to the local hospital); test results are only available by phone between 11:00 and 11:30; if you miss that slot because you cannot get through, too bad you wait until tomorrow (no good just pitching up as you walk back from the shops - you'll be sent away even if it is between 11:00 and 11:30); after hours you are referred to something called “EmDoc”. And they wonder why my local A&E is full up.

GPs are basically clearing houses. What most people suffer from either cures itself or needs specialist attention. They prescribe painkillers and if they don’t work they send you to see someone who knows what they’re talking about. I don’t know why newly qualified doctors are reluctant to enter general practice. They must be ideologically driven because it is money for old rope.

[jennyjoan]

I now don't get an appointment for 4 weeks - but have to say if it is urgent I think I could be seen

[Retrochic]

Four weeks to see a GP ? Thats disgraceful.

[tamborine]

After seeing TV doctors work in Putney & patient demands, medicine would not be my career choice.