GP's do not work for the NHS, they are usually employees or contractors of private businesses who own and run the GP surgery, the NHS contracts these companies to provide GP services. My GP surgery is owned by two GP's but they're only in for 2 days a week so appointments are scarce and it's usually left to the trainees or locums who come and go every month. It's no wonder that they wanted to keep phone consultations during COVID for as long as they could because it made their life a dream.I read a few pieces where GPs were getting older while the young ones weren’t being paid a decent wage to keep the NHS going.
Just like the problem with the Justice system, those that are supposedly there to protect are left on less than minimal wage, and expenses.
This type of healthcare is facing the exact same issues that for example the dental sector is facing. At the moment you'd say there is a shortage of NHS dental appointments but it isn't because there is a shortage of dentists. If you owned a dental practice then why would you even bother to take on NHS contracts/patients when you can earn treble that charging people for private treatment, that's what's happening.
Would you go through 5-7 years of medical school and then choose to go onto a low salary compared to what you could earn? Doctors can earn money all over the place, they might be contracted to help in hospitals or maybe they'll provide telephone consultations for private insurance patients. This is why your GP is probably only in the surgery a couple of times a week like mine, it's because they're busy coining it in elsewhere the rest of the week.
The idea that we should just pay even more money into this system is completely mad. We could ban private GP's and bring it all under a nationalised umbrella but good luck telling GP's that they can no longer earn six figure incomes and now they have to go onto the frozen NHS salary banding... Then you'll have a recruitment problem.
Last edited: