General Chat

Do we really want access to our GP to be capped?

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/dont-cap-GP-visits?source=facebook-link#petition

Certainly not!

Sure, there are some people who will visit the doctor when ever they have a sniffle. On the other hand there are many others who won't need or want to see one from one year to the next.

If you are denied access when you have a persistant problem, the underlying cause could be untreatable by the time you are allowed your next 12 month quota of visits.

There has been a recent debate that hospital A&E departments are visited by people with problems their GP could treat. A GP access quota would only worsen the problem.

I signed the petition earlier today

Signed :-D

Signed and a sarky response it was too, what ever next....this could be one of the cruelest things they have done. Despicable !!!! :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P

jude

I have signed. Doctors within a practice should sort out a rota between themselves, so they can open 7 days a week. Maybe that would ease the workload for A&E. A simple solution, and its not hard to put into practice. It about time WE were asked what we want... Not being told how many times a year we can see a doctor. Whatever next...half term, summer term holidays for them.

At it's best, it smacks of a 2 tier health service, at it's worst, it's reminiscent of a form of culling. 'Well, if you're THAT ill..'
Think 1935 onwards....

I signed :-)

Why not? In France for instance a visit to the doctor costs £ 10-20 up front which you may be able to get back in whole or part from medical insurance. The French are not dying like flies, there are no waiting lists.

I didn't sign though an arbitrary cap is a p[retty dumb approach.

France hasn't got a National Health Service - we do.

We pay in to it.

Do you really think the government will happily give us back tax if they manage to privatise it?

The NHS costs around £1,800 per year per person, £7,200 for a family of 4. This is an awful lot of money and far more than many families pay in tax.

Taking inflation into account the cost per person when the NHS was introduced in 1948 was around £750 per year per person in today's prices.

So why have costs gone up so much? are we ten times less well than we were then?

I won't be signing the petition but also agree that an arbitrary cap is not the best solution, however something does need to be done reduce unnecessary visits.

Part of the problem with GP's lies with the last government, who for some unexplicable reason, virtually doubled GP's income and at the same time drastically reduced their workload by making them no longer responsible for out of hours cover. We are now seeing the effects of this mad decision.

Do you begrudge GPs having anytime off. Not only do they have to see patients in their surgery, they do home visits as well. Never mind having meetings to discuss patient care and changes The powers that be have brought in. Then they have to go home and do a lot of studying so that they keep themselves up to date. I know one Dr who starts work in his surgery at 7am - 6pm and finishes his studying at midnight most days of the week. Do you really think it would be safe if he had to work weekends aswell.

As for pay I have no idea what a Dr earns but in his surgery they have four Drs and they cannot get anymore due to patient numbers being low.They receuive so much money per patient. Also the surgery is too small to have another DR.

If I had to work 24 hours a day 7 days a week I think i would change jobs. They deserve a life too.

Maybe A& E should have a gp unit attached to them so they can refer minor cases to them.

I am sad to say that it will never cease to amaze me what this government will stoop to. In their eyes, ordinary hard working people are all layabouts who spend their time lying on the settee watching television, smoking, and swilling beer :-|

This Old Etonian Boy's Club chaired by David Cameron will resort to anything to ensure that they succeed in implementing their ideological beliefs. It would not surprise me if they were looking at resurrecting the Poor Laws of 1834 and reinstating the workhouses of that era :-|

Having had my rant I am off to sign the petition :-)

It is not a plan of this Government, OFITG. It is just an idea being kicked around by some Tories (SELs?)

It probably wouldn't have the desired effect as those who don't visit the doctor much might feel they should visit their GP more often.

That's how plans start. I have signed it.
Maybe if the government was to lower University fees so people felt they could go to University to train to be a GP it might be easier all round as we would then have more GP's in the UK. Just an idea.

Due to my diabetes, heart and cardiovascular problems, my GP, not me, insists I see him every 2 months for an MOT. During these checkups he will ask if I have had any problems and if I say, for example, that I had a dizzy spell or stomach upset, he will ask why I did not come and see him, he gets annoyed when I say I did not want to bother him.

There are two doctors at my surgery and two practice nurses, both doctors are available Monday to Friday from 9 am to 12 noon and 4 pm to 6pm, between noon and 4pm they do their home visits. There is at least 1 practice nurse on duty in the surgery from 9pm to 6pm Monday to Friday, they also do home visits.

I think the doctors and nurses at my practice work hard and provide first class service :-)

I would add, that during a recent visit to my doctor, he tried to arrange an appointment for me with a hospital consultant, while waiting on the phone to arrange this, he said to me once he had to get through all the "bureaucracy" to get me sorted out.

In my opinion the problem with the NHS is "bureaucracy" to many clipboards and not enough scalpels, and that is why the cost of the NHS has spiralled :-|

GP's earn around £104,000 pa on average, with some earning over £200,000.

I think with all the red tape & bureaucracy they have to put up with today GP, doctors and nurses earn every penny they get. For most part they do a good job with what they are given. That said I don’t think it's fair to let the patient suffer by adding a limit of times a year how many times a person can go to see his/her GP. People don't ask to get sick or be given an illness that has no cure but needs some form of management, or to be disabled in some way. If you ask me it's office boys gone crazy again & needs stopping.

If they said you could only see your GP a max of Four times a year but you knew you needed to see him, say at least once a month, (12 months in a year) what are you going to do?

OFiTG.

You are very lucky that your doctor does home visits.

The only time my doctors will visit is for very eldery patient who are housebound and have no help in getting to the surgery.

NHS has gone to the dogs with this government.

IGP is that before or after tax and does it exclude practice expenses for example his/her share of the running costs of the practice.?