Ds not well so we ended up at the OOH service this afternoon. As it happens we saw our usual GP - knew that he did Saturdays OOH but didn't realise he also did alternate Sundays. He said he won't be doing them for much longer because of the 50% tax rate and associated loss of the basic rate personal allowance. Apparently 16 out of the 20 GPs who cover OOHs are also quitting. This is because doing OOH work puts them just into the 50% bracket but because of the tax effect sees them actually being paid nett very little for the work they do.
It means that we will lose an excellent local facility and see it replaced with locums (at least I assume that is what will happen at best, at worst the facility will be reduced). Unlike the current GPs the locums will have no connection with the existing GPs surgeries and I can only see that as a bad thing.
I'm not against the 50% rate (never likely to affect me) and had assumed it is only the 'very rich' who are affected. However the impact of its introduction will perhaps have a far wider effect than we like to think.