{"id":918,"date":"2021-12-13T23:49:38","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T23:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauks-dr-elizabeth-croton-in-the-timeswill-the-family-doctor-ever-see-you-again\/"},"modified":"2021-12-13T23:49:38","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T23:49:38","slug":"dauks-dr-elizabeth-croton-in-the-timeswill-the-family-doctor-ever-see-you-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauks-dr-elizabeth-croton-in-the-timeswill-the-family-doctor-ever-see-you-again\/","title":{"rendered":"DAUK’s Dr Elizabeth Croton in The Times:’Will the family doctor ever see you again’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Nothing happens quickly within the NHS, but it seemed last week that the longest of the health service\u2019s many queues was of patients lining up to complain about their GPs. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to get through to my doctor\u2019s surgery by phone,\u201d says David Wishingsky, a 60-year-old care-home chef from Hastings who is worried about side-effects from his antidepressants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Megan McGinty, a 19-year-old Glasgow student, developed \u201chorrible\u201d abdominal pain a week ago. \u201cThe earliest appointment I could get was October 18,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just seemed to me they weren\u2019t even listening to my symptoms or how I felt, just put me on the back burner and told me to wait.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are so many stories like this, and so many patients desperate for medical treatment<\/a>; it is clear that something has broken down in the relationship between Britons and their doctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand the system is under immense pressure at the moment, so I don\u2019t like to blame the NHS per se,\u201d says Rhys Harding, 25, who works in digital marketing in Gloucester and has to wait until October 15 for his next chance to talk to his doctor. \u201cBut it has been a struggle to see a GP for many years now, and it seems like it\u2019s getting worse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors in turn have been\u00a0horrified to find themselves portrayed as surly fat-cats<\/a>, raking in six-figure salaries for a reduced working week while steering a wide berth around their patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hugely resent the idea that I am lazy, workshy and doing my best to wriggle out of seeing patients when, in reality, I\u2019ve never worked harder,\u201d says Dr Elizabeth Croton, a Birmingham-based GP and committee member at the Doctors\u2019 Association UK. Nor can the crisis be wholly blamed on the after-effects of Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe NHS is at a watershed moment,\u201d claims Dr Simon Hodes, 49, who has worked as a GP in the same Watford practice for 20 years. \u201cGP teams cannot be everything to everyone and our resources are finite. There is clearly a mismatch between supply and demand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of patients per practice is now 24 per cent higher than in 2015. In these circumstances, it is not surprising appointments are hard to come by. \u201cOf course I can understand people\u2019s frustrations about remote consultations,\u201d Croton says. \u201cI struggle daily with a hollow feeling of not having the resources to do my job properly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The roots of the current GP crisis stretch back almost 20 years to the 2004 decision by John Reid, the Labour health secretary, to allow GPs to opt out of 24-hour responsibility for their patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full piece here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nothing happens quickly within the NHS, but it seemed last week that the longest of the health service\u2019s many queues was of patients lining up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[38,301,533,33,34,42,131],"class_list":["post-918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-practice","tag-dauk","tag-dauks-gp-committee","tag-dr-elizabeth-croton","tag-press","tag-press-covid-19","tag-the-doctors-association-uk","tag-the-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918","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=918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}