HUGE PRESSURES are being put onto GPs in England and Wales. They are so great that doctors are beginning to feel that they are beginning to fail their patients.
GP doctors’ leader Chaand Nagpaul said yesterday that the situation was now so bad that doctors were having to rush through consultations with patients to keep up with their schedules. He added that this situation could be potentially dangerous in terms of identifying cancer and getting medicines right.
Nagpaul’s comments came as the BMA released the results of an online survey with nearly 2,900 practices in England and 145 in Wales – about one in three of the total in both nations. It showed that in England 55% thought the quality of the service their practices were providing had deteriorated in the past 12 months.
Some 68% said their workload was unmanageable, while 92% reported demand had increased in the past year. Nagpaul concluded, ‘It is unsustainable and getting to the point where it is not safe. The ageing population means many of our patients have multiple conditions and are on multiple medicines, but we simply don’t have the time to properly consider how they interact.
‘On cancer we are having to make rushed decisions. And we are seeing growing numbers of patients with dementia – and yet we just have 10 minutes to see them. It’s not enough. We are being forced to let down patients. We need to see more investment in general practice so we can keep up with demand and have longer 15-minute consultations.’
However correct and caring Nagpaul’s comments are, it is a fact that this situation is the product of Tory government attacks on the NHS, that are now being stepped up to pave the way for its break-up and privatisation.
This week, the Tories’ chief negotiator in the current government-imposed dispute with the junior doctors, Salford Health Executive Sir David Dalton, wrote an open letter to his boss, Health Secretary Hunt, saying that he was not prepared to resume negotiations with the junior doctors until they were prepared to accept the government’s offer to work longer hours for less pay.
He wrote, ‘I should note though that I do not believe negotiations should restart unless the BMA state beforehand that they will negotiate on the principal outstanding issues. Should the BMA confirm that they will not negotiate and compromise on weekday and weekend plain time/unsocial hours then I will have to conclude that there is no opportunity for a negotiated settlement, and I would then need to advise you accordingly.
‘The issues around this and other outstanding contract negotiations have caused great uncertainty in the NHS and it is essential that the service finds out how things will proceed as soon as possible. Specifically, if effective implementation is to be assured for junior doctors then agreement is required by no later than mid-February …’
This means that in mid-February the government will impose their contract onto the junior doctors and seek to force them to work it, using disciplinary action as their tool. The profession is to have a jackboot placed on its neck!
The GPs have just held their GPs Committee (GPC) conference. It was brimming over with anger at the way the Tories are smashing the NHS, and also with a very great admiration for the way that the junior doctors are battling to save the NHS and take it forward.
It was a major mistake that the BMA leadership put a gag on that conference with the chairman declaring that industrial action was illegal and that it was his job to stop the Conference from breaking the law! In vain delegates protested at the ruling, just two days before the complete breakdown of the junior doctors’ talks and the declaration that there would be strike action on February 10.
The BMA must now correct that mistake and call out all of its members on the 10th, and ask the TUC trade unions to take action along with them. The way to save the NHS is to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers’ government!