{"id":1232,"date":"2024-03-29T14:38:26","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T14:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/gp-crisis-were-sinking-can-you-help-us\/"},"modified":"2024-03-29T14:38:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T14:38:26","slug":"gp-crisis-were-sinking-can-you-help-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/gp-crisis-were-sinking-can-you-help-us\/","title":{"rendered":"DAUK GPs highlight the crisis facing general practice in a series of broadcast interviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Members of the Doctors\u2019 Association UK\u2019s GP committee have taken to the airwaves to highlight the growing crisis facing general practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Sarah Jacques spoke to James O\u2019Brien on his LBC programme about the pressures of being a GP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Ellen Welch, meanwhile, contributed to a feature on ITV about the financial pressures that GP practices are facing, particularly in the north west of England where she lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Dr Steve Taylor was interviewed by Matthew Wright on the LBC breakfast programme about GPs in England rejecting Government changes to their contract in the BMA referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Jacques, who has recently joined the DAUK GP team, described to LBC listeners how general practice does around 90 per cent of the NHS work and receives just over five per cent of the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said demand on general practice had risen since the pandemic. Pre-Covid, patients would see their GP on average two to three times a year, but now, it\u2019s seven times a year, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crisis in general practice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr Jacques added: \u201cI was working 12 to 14 hours a day, every day, and barely went to the toilet because of the intensity with which we are working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople think GPs only have two sessions, morning and afternoon seeing patients, and that\u2019s all we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are 101 other things that go on in general practice that means we do not stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My pay would only cover about 40 hours a week and to keep things running you have to do those 15 to 20 hours extra each week \u2013 and most GPs are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPart-time GPs, that people keep having a go at, they\u2019re actually doing 35 to 40 hours a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the level of work we\u2019re having to carry or everything would come to a standstill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn awful lot of what used to be done by secondary care, so in the hospitals, has now been passed into general practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are managing far more complex patients than we used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe job has changed considerably. The funding has not flowed with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t say no because there\u2019s a patient in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit our Instagram page<\/a> to listen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GP practices at risk<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A feature on the ITV Borders evening news focused on a report that identified that 10 GP practices in Cumbria and Lancashire were at risk of immediate closure, with more than 100 others saying they were struggling financially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screengrab<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dr Ellen Welch is a GP and former co-chair of DAUK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Welch, a former DAUK co-chair, said: We\u2019re seeing 1.4m patients a day and we\u2019re doing it with 2,000 fewer GPs than we had in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are burning out. People are retiring early. People are moving overseas. GPs have died by suicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe pressures are immense and people are thinking I\u2019ve had enough and I\u2019m not going to do this anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch the feature again<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Dr Taylor told listeners to the LBC breakfast show that the overwhelming vote by GPs to reject contract changes in the BMA referendum demonstrated their \u2018strength of feeling\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 19,000 GPs and registrars who took part, 99.2 per cent voted no to accepting the national GP General Medical Services contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a pretty substantial vote,\u201d he said. \u201cIt shows the strength of feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an indicative vote of how unhappy GPs are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GP contract vote<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr Taylor said the contract offer was below the rate of inflation and, for many practices, would not cover the running costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt come on the back of cuts in real terms over the past seven or eight years of about 20 per cent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGP practices have been really struggling to fund the core services they provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re doing an incredible job but the reward for that is below inflation financial input, which is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if GPs may strike over funding, Dr Taylor said: \u201cGPs are small businesses in some ways, so you\u2019re going to be striking against yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to find ways of making a noise. This vote was a good way of putting our hands up and saying \u2018we\u2019re sinking, can you help us?\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m struggling to see why the part of the NHS which is producing more is being given less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe other bits of the NHS have been given a minimum of six per cent this year. Consultants managed to get 10 per cent and GPs were thrown a bone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen again to the interview on our Instagram page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Doctors\u2019 Association UK\u2019s GP committee have taken to the airwaves to highlight the growing crisis facing general practice. Dr Sarah Jacques spoke…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,59,29,58],"tags":[38,324,656,61,23,641,42],"class_list":["post-1232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-general-practice","category-protect-the-frontline","category-the-nhs","tag-dauk","tag-dr-ellen-welch","tag-dr-sarah-jacques","tag-general-practice","tag-gp-crisis","tag-steve-taylor","tag-the-doctors-association-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}