Life

In My View: Sometimes doctors need a half a day

A practice might close for half a day, in order to have time to phone patients unable to come to the surgery
A practice might close for half a day, in order to have time to phone patients unable to come to the surgery A practice might close for half a day, in order to have time to phone patients unable to come to the surgery

THE announcement last week that NHS England intends to withhold funds from GP practices, should they close for a half day, has once again reminded me that I’ve lived through a golden era, now long past.

When I started in general practice, my three partners and I each held nine surgeries every week; covered all out-of-hours emergencies; fitted in a baby clinic and immunisation sessions; visited patients in hospital; and supervised care of the long-term sick at home.

We also seamlessly covered palliative care when our patients reached the end of their lives.

This was genuine cradle-to-grave coverage – something each one of us had aspired to provide.

Since then, despite every practice being a small, ‘independent’ business, successive government policies have so shackled GPs that the freedom to do what’s best for patients has been lost: the endless drip-feed of interference has resulted in disillusioned senior GPs retiring early.

It’s led to a crisis of recruitment into general practice, too.

The upshot of NHS England’s inability to understand the nature of the task? Not enough professionals to do the job, and falling standards in medical care.

In fact, it’s entirely reasonable that a practice might close for half a day, in order to have time to phone patients unable to come to the surgery; for recruiting and training staff; supervising postgraduate trainees; preparing for annual appraisals; or any administrative tasks vital in the running of the practice.

When Jeremy Hunt was Health Secretary, he resolved to appoint 5,000 new GPs by 2020 – but, in fact, we now have fewer.

The latest financial punishment, foisted on those already in a state of festering crisis, will only make matters even worse.

© Daily Mail