To think GP surgeries shouldn’t be closed over Easter weekend? [Title edited by MNHQ]

Do you not realise that the fact that they’re not available at weekends and on bank holidays is the reason why some medical emergencies become emergencies though?

I know so many people who have ended up at A&E or out of hours clinics over weekend, Xmas and Easter, for things that a GP could have helped with in the first instance, and then the emergency provisions become overrun and backed up due to demand over those time periods.

Many healthcare services are closed on bank holidays and weekends, and GPs are no different. They aren't running an emergency service, that's what A&E is for.

I see a GP or other health care professional whenever I or my children need to. Sometimes I have to wait a bit if it's not urgent. The surgery is always busy and full of people. Does your GP really not offer appointments anymore?

100% agree with you there

There will have been appointments but other patients have been given them. Many appointments can be handled by a nurse or nurse practitioner.

Agree. Long story short, I got sick on a Good Friday once, managed to get antibiotics at urgent care. By Easter Sat, I was in hospital. They were overrun, sent me home. Next day, the A&E junior doctor who’d seen me rang my mobile to check I was ok. This worried me! I was back in by Tuesday by which time a senior doc was back, scanned me staightaway and realised I had sepsis. I don’t recommend getting sick at Easter.

It’s irrelevant for me anyway, you have to be already dead to get an appointment at my GP I think. Don’t do same day appointments, e-consult often isn’t turned on and the last 3 times I’ve had appointments it’s not even with an actual doctor.

Well it's not in our contract nor has ever been. The government is so quick to treat us with disdain in all contract negotiations imposing minimal in fact negative increases for partners and imposing unreasonable contracts. So if you think for one moment I would do anything additional to my contract (apart from the million little things we do every day) the you're having a laugh.
Your beef it seems is with the government. Get them to negotiate bank holiday opening. But boy oh boy would it cost them. Years of cuts and disdain. They won't though because they dont give a shit about the people they are supposed to represent.

No I think that essential healthcare should be available at weekends and on bank holidays, especially in the winter with so many illnesses rife.
What I’m saying is if zoo workers and retail staff still have to work bank hols then so should essential first point of contact for healthcare - GPs and Pharmacies.
I know nurses who work Christmas Day, I don’t see why a GP can’t work on Sunday, New Year’s Day, Good Friday, etc.

They aren’t even closed for this long over Christmas

Easter is the most important Christian festival, not Christmas, so saying "even Christmas" as though it were more significant or important is mistaken.

FWIW I am a "part time " GP Partner and have been for over 20 years. I work 3 clinical days in the surgery which are 36 hours. So more than full time hours but I only get paid part time pay.
I also usually work at home every evening and weekend catching up on admin maybe another 5-10 hours a week.
As Senior partner I spend about another 10 hours a week on management and staffing/building/finance issues. Unpaid. .
I work 5-10 additional hours for OOH because my income hasn't kept up with inflation and I cannot work any more day time hours without breaking.
I also have various other roles which I hugely enjoy and I hope will allow me to do less clinical work in time. I won't include those because I enjoy them. They are less well paid and are another 5 or so hours a week.
I used to love my job now I hate it. Attitudes like Tizero are the main reason 2 of my partners retired from practice and we can't recruit.
My blood boils when I hear "part time GP". And I wonder how many hours you would be happy with.

We visit those who are besbound or terminally ill, regardless of age

What study dear? Please be clearer? Do you mean newly qualified GPs/doctors? You do realise that is a fraction of the problem. The chip on your shoulder must be massive and very hard to bear.

Age alone is not a reason for a home visit. Some 90 year olds are very mobile, other just need some assistance from family to get to their appointments.

Home visits should be reserved for the truly housebound or palliative. Some people request home visits despite managing just fine to visit the hospital, the optician and even the hairdresser.

Using up 6 appointment slots for a home visit when a patient could manage, even with some difficulty, to attend the surgery, is part of the problem.

I'd work a bank holiday if I could have another day off. But as we can barely staff our normal days with GPs Woking 13hour days already then that's not gonna happen.
I am however working for GP OOH because my GP income has dropped dramatically and working more normal hours will literally finish me off. The pay for this hasn't increased in 10 years. And you could not believe the amount of absolute and complete rubbish I see.

@echt The survey was conducted by the Kings Fund. I don’t fall for anything, but I’m interested in surveys conducted by reputable organisations. Shame you didn’t know about it.

You must just be a bit stupid. I don't blame the whole absolutely appalling ambulance service at the feet of individual paramedics (even though they spend hours at a house just to do nothing ...except dump it on me). And don't start me on the ones who think they are doctors.
Are you stupid enough to actually think because you don't get what you want then all the millions of other people also don't.
As for "free education" seriously?? The student loans for doctors are crippling.
But actually I trained abroad but have now worked in the NHS for over 30 years. When will my home country be repaid by the NHS for my training then??

I am fully on board that there are not enough GPs so this cant happen. There is possibly a case that they dong need to either as its supposed to be non urgent care.

But people must realise that loads of people work bank holidays already? They get a different day off instead. There are lots of services that are operating all year round. Some places still pay an enhanced rate for anti social hours. My parents loved working bank holidays. They got more money and could have a day off when everything was quieter.

They are close weekends anyway .I think its mean to expect NHS staff to work when others are off. Receptionists have families, and arent paid huge salaries like GPs or even Nurses. 111 is avaliable and A and E .

So you can have a bank holiday and go to a zoo but others can't.

Or do you think the government should cancel bank Holidays?

GP’s are entitled to work part time -many have young children. Any graduate is entitled to move abroad for employment. We are in our 50’s and not British. We decided on Canada as DH is French Canadian. He came to the when he was 21 on a scholarship. Our DT’s graduated from UK universities but both have got graduate jobs in other countries. There are more opportunities outside the UK.
Gp’s do many more appointments by phone as they can do more appointments that way and surveys have shown that for many patients it is preferred

They didn’t do home appointments for DM in her late 90s. They did not. Many GPs work part time. I get the pension position but lots have the same issue when senior in their workplace.

When any doctor leaves the uk they have taken their mostly free training (less the student loan) and decided privately funded healthcare is best. Yet all we hear are doctors complaining about the privatization of healthcare and how bad that would be. We need to get real and look at a better system,

GPs might get through appointing but on the phone.

DH handed back his GP contract and we moved abroad - not for the money but for the quality of his working life.

There are more people than ever wanting a GP appointment (many more chronic illnesses as many are living much longer) but less GP’s to go around. Even with this, more people had an appointment than even before Covid. GP’s do home appointments for those needing them and also do appointments for patients in a care home.

Exactly.

Extra capacity to any service, whatever it is, can't just be willed into existence because people want it to be there. Other people have to be available to provide the service. It amazes me how often this comes up on here, be it GPs, retail workers or anything inbetween.

Every single commentator you hear says doctors can earn more abroad and are going. They are going to private healthcare abroad. There’s no other nhs to go to.

I do value my GP. That is I would if I knew they were. We aren’t allocated a GP. My DM’s practice never even saw very elderly patients in their homes. In a care home, they come every week. Why is that? Care at home is non existent.

Many GPs just don’t see people in a timely manner. Yes. I do wait - for a telephone call. I’ve not seen a GP since well before COVID. However I’m over retirement age and never ill. I just spoke to an GP about Vertigo. Once. Others seem to be forever ill and don’t look after themselves.