The government is now saying that we should have access to our family doctors at out of the ordinary times.

This is strange when many of our doctors are now finishing doing Saturday morning surgeries and are refusing to do their own out of hours calls.

People get ill at all times of the day and night and surely we should have a health service that reflects that.

We shop over a 24 hour period, we can drink over a 24 hour period, bank etc etc so why shouldn't we have access to health care professionals on a 24 hour basis? Of course the government would need to employ more GP's so that they could have a reasonable home/work balance.

What do you lot think?

I attend a surgery where "my" doctor remembers no more about my history than any other of the practice doctors that I see.
After hours, I (and you) have access to a doctor if needed urgently, provided by the 'out-of-hours' co-operative.
It doesn't really make much difference to me who provides the doctor.

So what's new?
Requiring surgeries to open longer hours for non-urgent consultations outside 'business hours'?
Then why did the government not negotiate this in the recent revision of GP contracts?

It may increase convenience but it will just cost us more in the long run.

It would be nice if lots of things were open outside "normal bussiness" hours, that would allow those of us who work to get things done in the week instead of having to take time off work or waste most of Saturday trying to get them done.

I can see the pros and cons in this. As someone who works full-time and who has unfortunately had to visit the GP on a fairly regular basis recently, I have found it very frustrating at times that I have to wait a week for an appointment because all the times between 5 and 6pm (the only time I can get, and even then I have to leave work early) have already gone, while if I could attend during the day then I could get an appointment within 24 - 48 hours.

On the other hand the government has shot themselves in the foot with this one. Only last year they re-negotiated contracts with GPs which has led them to opt-out of providing out-of-hours cover. So now we see a U-turn!

The basic logic suggests we'd need more doctors if this were to happen, and this would obviously cost more. But I'd be interested to know how many hours a week GPs currently work. Where do they 'disappear' to when they are not at the surgery (every surgery I have been registered at, each doctor is only are on certain number of days per week). Does anyone know?

hiya
Following the introduction of the new GP contract there has been a substantial increase in paperwork for GPs. When I first read it my first impression was that the role of the GP had become that of "bean counter". GPs also spend a lot of time on referrals, chasing results, continuing professional development so that accounts for a substantial amount of time.
However, and probably more importantly GPs are electing to work less than full time and there is probably a slightly more than average proportion of females working in general practice and also have family commitments (this includes male GPs too but they dont tend to take maternity leave!!)
GPs are becoming "burnt out" and many do "other" jobs such as GP education, may elect for a specialism or other professional activities.

Originally posted by Mo
We shop over a 24 hour period, we can drink over a 24 hour period, bank etc etc so why shouldn't we have access to health care professionals on a 24 hour basis?

Would you want to be working a graveyard shift? I can understand the convenience in making them open later into the evenings, but 24-hour opening and weekends is asking a bit much of the poor folk.

And isn't NHS Direct supposed to be 24 hour?

Originally posted by Mo
Of course the government would need to employ more GP's so that they could have a reasonable home/work balance.

And there's the problem. I know quite a few qualified Doctors who are leaving the profession for less demanding jobs (such as IT consultancy, or Dentistry) so the Govt will have to work much harder to recruit and keep GPs.

Finally, is anyone out there keen to pay higher taxes to fund the 24 x 7 Doctors service?

If you're ill in the middle of the night, go to the Hospital instead ;)

For soon-to-be-ex-hubby, access to medical care is, and always has been, a seriously difficult issue. He can't make weekday appointments at all (due to being in a truck anywhere from Afghanistan to Morocco) and so has to book up to 4 weeks holiday to get an appointment, because if you can't go on a specific trip or tour you miss the whole thing- you can't just go tomorrow, or even later on today.

Mix that with the fact that the out of hours service play merry hell with why his need to see them is an emergency (and refusing to see him at all, as they deemed that he could wait until Monday to see our GP, when the whole reason that he wanted to see them was because he was on a ferry at 6am on Monday, and was away for 2 months) and the fact that they won't prescribe any long term medication, and you can see that they really don't meet his needs properly anyway.

So what does he do when he needs to see a GP to get his repeat prescriptions reauthorised? He books the time off and accepts the kick in the bank account.

There must be others who can't see a GP during the week (I know many truck drivers who only get home at weekends), so one possible solution is to give out of hours services access to proper medical records and the power to deal with long term meds, and then maybe they would meet people's needs.

Originally posted by medusa666
There must be others who can't see a GP during the week (I know many truck drivers who only get home at weekends), so one possible solution is to give out of hours services access to proper medical records and the power to deal with long term meds, and then maybe they would meet people's needs.

Point taken; how about if the NHS make a small charge for out-of-hours appointments?

Originally posted by Abdul
Point taken; how about if the NHS make a small charge for out-of-hours appointments?


This makes sense. And this way the tax payer wouldnt need take take the full blunt of paying, win win all round.

Most places now have some kind of walk in centre, where you can be triaged and referred to a doctor where necessary. Such places are usually open 7am till 10ish and I would guess most people can make that time and just drop in. If its outside of those hours en A&E if its an emergency?

Originally posted by Abdul
Would you want to be working a graveyard shift? I can understand the convenience in making them open later into the evenings, but 24-hour opening and weekends is asking a bit much of the poor folk.

And isn't NHS Direct supposed to be 24 hour?



And there's the problem. I know quite a few qualified Doctors who are leaving the profession for less demanding jobs (such as IT consultancy, or Dentistry) so the Govt will have to work much harder to recruit and keep GPs.

Finally, is anyone out there keen to pay higher taxes to fund the 24 x 7 Doctors service?

If you're ill in the middle of the night, go to the Hospital instead ;)

It's fortunate that fire and police personnel don't have that 9 to 5 attitude. They have no choice. They have to provide 24 hour cover because their services don't ever stop being needed.

If everybody who called a doctor out of hours were to turn up at A & E the place would be swamped and the ambulance service would be at meltdown.

GP'd used to offer an out of hours service, however this was made non-compulasary a little while ago, and most GP's opted out, letting the likes of NHS Direct and A&E take the brunt of the ill people. The government, in its infinate wisdom decided that NHS walk in centeres would be bale to cope, but they are only open until 8pmish.

So i think we should go back to GP's taking it in turns to do a night shift, for those calls that do not warrant a trip to A&E or a 3-9's call.

if you were to "force" gps to go back to out of hours working you would probably find a heavy mass exodus. Whilst obviously many out of hours calls are necessary a huge majority are not urgent, nor necessarily appropriate for a GP to attend. Whilst I acknowledge the limitations of the delivery of the services currently offered a return to GP out of hours is not the answer

We moved here from Peterborough where our surgery was open every day of the working week, 'til six o'clock, and on Saturday mornings.

It was like returning to the dark ages to get to Sheffield and find that you have to take a day off work just to be re-prescribed the pill every six months :rant:

And what's this nonsense about being closed one day a week? Especially when it's a health centre with 6 or 7 doctors :rant:

might be able to get an appointment then - I might deliberately book for 3.30am on a Monday morning..;)

In all the jobs I have ever done, I have been there when the customers / clients (insert whatever term is appropriate) has required it. If I choose a career in event management / venue management or helicopter pleasure flying, it comes with the job. It also means that it is not easy to drop everything to fit in with the limited opening hours of GP surgeries. If I am at work to fit in with when my customers expect em to eb there, I don't think it is unreasonable to expect others to do so as well - and that includes doctors.

I have tried to register with a GP practice recently. After being told by two practices that I am "out of their area" - i.e. slightly more than a mile away - I tried another practice. I was told to come in and fill in a form. Before my registration was accepted, however, I was told that I had to come in on another day (they couldn't do it then, and didn't tell me this when I rang to ask the procedure) to have a health check by the practice nurse. This can only be done on weekdays between 10:00 and 16:00, and they need a weeks notice for it.

I now find that I am without a GP because I cannot just take days off work at a whim to fit in with their limited opening hours. I hope I don't fall ill before I can find a convenient practice that is open when I can book time off work to suit their needs. Shouldn't it be the other way round?