Doctors Surgeries - Open all Hors

[Gromit]

In an outrageous move, the government wants to see a majority of GP practices offering extended hours and has made an offer that would see an average-sized practice with 6,000 patients open an extra three hours a week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7223245.stm

The British Medical Association strongly oppose the proposal arguing that most patients prefer to be sick only during normal office hours and want their weekends free for leisure.

Will doctors fleece the government again, this time getting a lot more money for a little more work?

[Le Chat]

Gromit- You must have a block of free time this morning judging by the flurry of posts!
My Dr's surgery is open 8.30 - 5.30 Mon-Fri and 8.30 -12 noon on a Wed.
I think these hours are ridiculous. If the Beauty Salon I worked in kept these unsociable hours, we would have ceased business a long time ago! The problem is we need to see our Dr.
Also, it's not a case of either/or! If the surgery has more than one Dr, then they can shift about their hours, as we do at work. For example. on Fridays, we are open until 8pm but we're not all there from 9am! The working day is staggered to accommodtae both worker and customer.
Plus- They are earning �100k per year, so they should be a little more flexible!!

[China Doll]

I used to have a doctors who didn't open in the afternoon. I don't know about anyone else but if I've spent half the night up feeling ill the last thing I want to do is drag my ar5e out of bed at 9am just to make an appointment with the quacks.

I like the doctors I'm with now as they open in the afternoon and that suits me better. Plus in the past when I've been working it has always been useful to be able to get an appointment for routine things after work rather having to take the morning off.

[toby99]

Doctors use to open Saturday mornings until the Government said they could shut and opened up Out of Hours Cover and reduced the funding for GP practices. They now want surgeries to open evenings and weekends without any extra funding to cover costs and indeed if Practices do not offer these extra hours they are to have their existing funding drastically cut. Existing GPs and staffing will just be spread thinner over the working week reducing appointments elsewhere. The Government has been playing the public like puppets for years with their propaganda trying to turn patients against their GPs to gain the ultimate goal of privitisation, which is not far off. GPs may get more money than they have in the past, but their overheads to meet these targets are huge so their profits are no different. Yes, there are lucrative earning opportunities for GPs, but the majority don�t sign up to them as they have enough to do to try and deliver a regular service, but we, the public, are unaware of this