Nine in 10 GPs say no to seven day opening

Almost all GPs do not want their own practice to open seven days a week, a poll of 15,000 doctors has found.
Plans for 7 day access to GPs are the key Conservative manifesto health pledge, along with improved hospital services at weekends.
But the British Medical Association (BMA) survey found that 94 per cent of family doctors do not want their own surgery to offer seven day opening.
The reluctance came despite the fact half of those polled thought practices should offer more extended hours to their patients.
Under the Tory pledge, all patients would be able to access a GP seven days a week for routine appointments, seven days a week, by 2020.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11523739/Nine-in-10-GPs-say-no-to-seven-day-opening.html


Sorry but this is utterly selfish on the part of GP's and is one area that costs can actually be brought down, based around the fact os how the cost is already spread out for the OOH service and the cost of GP's working anyway. If people have local sugeries open this will bring down the overal cost, even more so when it works out to around £3000 per patient that ends up going to A&E instead. Many of the public are unhappy to see doctors they are unfamiliar with if they need to see a GP on the weekend. The sugeries can still do as is operated by the OOH using the Pathways system if a patient really needs to be seen. This system of course does not diagnose but it does rule out how urgent a person needs to be seen, In other words if it cannot rule out how urgent then the person is directed to the relevant service. This could really be a major part in helping with NHS costs and provide patients feeling more secure and happy at being able to going to see GP's that they know. They are payed very well these days doctors and see no reason where many other people now work weekends that they also share some of this burden to do the same.

It's no surprise is it? Who would volunteer to extend their opening hours if they didn't have to?

It would be useful for those who work during the week, so they don't have to take time off for appointments, and perhaps such appointments should be reserved for those who really find it difficult to go in the week. If someone can easily go to the doctor in the week, they shouldn't be blocking up the system at weekends.

It would also be useful for emergencies. I had to find a doctor on a Sunday once, and that was quite difficult.

Raggamuffin wrote:It's no surprise is it? Who would volunteer to extend their opening hours if they didn't have to?

It would be useful for those who work during the week, so they don't have to take time off for appointments, and perhaps such appointments should be reserved for those who really find it difficult to go in the week. If someone can easily go to the doctor in the week, they shouldn't be blocking up the system at weekends.

It would also be useful for emergencies. I had to find a doctor on a Sunday once, and that was quite difficult.

Many people do not want to work weekends, but in the greater scheme of things it is a necessary need going forward. Again on the weekends there are many elderly patients too afraid to use the OOH service because of the fear of not having their own GP's to hand to help and assist them. GP's need to take a greater responsibility here for their own patients. Even more so when it is Palliative patients. I fail to see why they cannot work out a system between other surgeries, but to me even that does not go far enough. Most GP's have multiple doctors and fail to see how they cannot work out a rota.

I agree that patients should go to their GP's during the week if they are routine check ups, and again many people clog up the system OOH with unnecessary calls into the system where they do not need to be seen. They ring up for the most mundane reasons like for example earache. This is something many people wrongly think they need antibiotics, when any GP will tell you the best thing for such a problem is ibuprofen. The Pathways system does help here to rule out those who do not need to be seen and this can still work for surgeries on the weekend on who really does need to be seen. Again cost does play a big factor here and it actually costs the sugeries far more when their own patients end up at A&E. One of the biggest problems as well is the culture of patients demanding that they should be seen. This is completely wrong, where in many cases they do not require to be seen. So its not all down to the surgeries but they have to play their part going forward and as much as they do not want to work weekends, sorry but tough, they are paid very well for their profession today.

GP's are just middle men to get you to the people you really want to see.

There's not much a GP can tell you that Google cant tbh

They're only any good if you want blood tests and/or you need an appointment to see a specialist!

GPs need to get their backsides in motion & open up at weekends.

Where I live the local surgery has 7 doctors, and every one of them work part time. If you want an appointment they say ring up at 8am in the morning, no chance it's always engaged. The only way to get an appointment is to be outside the surgery at 8am and wait till they open, winter and summer in all weathers. I can't do that so my daughter does it for me.This is Labour's fault they gave the doctors the chance to fix their own hours and more money to do it!