To think GPs should do their job

[Wotnokids]

Just heard the news that £250million is to be made available to GPs to 'increase the amount of face to face appointments'. AIBU to think this is just extra cash for doing their job?

Have a go at doing their thanklessly exhausting job then come back and tell us.

More likely to go towards GP training as there is a huge shortage of GPs, it’s all over the news but has been a fact for years.
Now much much worse.

I suspect that money is to offer GP training (which costs £££) to newly qualifying DRs.

Let’s whip up the rhetoric against GPs so they are blamed & not years of cuts and running down services.

If it’s a daily mail headline blaming someone else then it’s definitely the Government’s fault.

@Seashor

Have a go at doing their thanklessly exhausting job then come back and tell us.

Many of us have thankless exhausting jobs, what's your point? At least they're decently paid for theirs to begin with, before all these extra incentives

We need more GPS, I heard a statistic that we have the least amount of GPs in Europe, so I'm pleased that money is being pumped in.

OP what do you think GPs are trying hard to do if not their jobs?
What do you think this money is going to be used for? Lovely bonuses?
It’s training to get more GP numbers on the ground doing the face to face appointments.

Government cuts are the problem, not the GP's. My surgery do a telephone triage with a GP who then decides if they can help you over the phone, over video call or face to face. I think it's a brilliant system. There are thousands of patients at our surgery and only 4 GP's. As part of this new package apparently other healthcare workers will have the ability to do fit notes, DVLA letters and other admin that presumably takes up a good chunk of a GP's time which is good. I know my Dr is wonderful and I can imagine that they would much rather use their time helping patients than trying to navigate red tape and stupid policies that the government bring in and then blame them for when it's unpopular.

@Eve

Let’s whip up the rhetoric against GPs so they are blamed & not years of cuts and running down services.

If it’s a daily mail headline blaming someone else then it’s definitely the Government’s fault.

This is a very good point

The GPS I know are absolutely on their knees. They had a hard enough job before but it’s absolutely relentless for them now.
Still Op - maybe you should retrain they’re desperate for GPS. Funnily enough, kids going to medical school do t seem to think it’s something they want to do.
Personally, I would t want to work 8-6 or longer everyday, seeing patients every 10 or 20 mins relentlessly throughout the day, while still working in the community, week in week out while people
Complain about how I can’t be bothered to see them properly.
I earn as much as a GP but work 35 hrs a week, and while
My job can be stressful, I would say it compares at all.

GPS are doing their jobs, they're also leaving in droves. The Daily Mail whipping up hatred has been the last straw for many. Be careful what you wish for.

If you’re looking for someone to blame them look at the government who have brought in cut after cut after cut to push more and more of us towards the private health care that they already use themselves.

GPS aren't sitting around doing nothing!

They are doing their jobs.

Recent figures show average GP works 3 1/2 days and average salary is over £100k. By definition, that means some do lots more time but also some do less. Same with salary. My issue is not what they get paid but that additional funding is being provided from the existing NHS budget (so where will the cuts fall to pay for it?) for doing something they should already be doing!

@Theworldisfullofgs

GPS are doing their jobs, they're also leaving in droves. The Daily Mail whipping up hatred has been the last straw for many. Be careful what you wish for.

Agree wholeheartedly with this and some other PPs in a similar vein.

We need to support our GPS, not criticise them. It takes years and years and years of training to become one and then they work from early in the morning to silly o'clock at night doing mentally challenging work. Yes they are well-paid but they have an absolutely massive amount of responsibility.

My job is 'endlessly exhausting' I'm an early years teacher, in a large, very diverse inner city school.
I'm paid at least, half maybe a third what a gp earns.
The public are tired of gps still not returning to 'normal' and still not offering face to face appointments.
I'm not surprised that people are angry.
I like many have worked face to face throughout the pandemic and for a large part of it I was unvaccinated too.

@brittleheadgirl agree teachers jobs are endlessly exhausting too and teachers should be supported by the public and media rather than criticizes...... but we are going slightly off topic here

No doubt the £250 million, which doesn't sound a lot when divides between the approx 35,000 GPs in the UK, will be used to offset the increased cost of running F2F surgeries post-covid.

@dizzydizzydizzy
I'm good at that!
In fairness, I'm also tired of endlessly trying to get any sort of face to face appointment at my local surgery.
It's a joke, why are they still online?! It actually means accessing healthcare is trickier than ever for the poor, we should all be angry about the issue!!

They may be working 3 and a half days, but when they are 12 hour days, that's more than most people's full time jobs.

@Livelifeinthebuslane

They may be working 3 and a half days, but when they are 12 hour days, that's more than most people's full time jobs.

Hilarious! You clearly have no idea of how hard life is for so many. Do you realise how many people work full time, for minimum wage and then work in the evening/weekends too, just to scrap by.

A gp working 3 twelve hour days for around 100k a year, has a work life balance and quality of life that most can only dream of.

So true @brittleheadgirl so many people just have no point of reference for how hard life can be. Access to GPs is dire, and I hope that money is going in to training more and not just 'increasing face-to-face' because that is just going back to normal, not improving!

I find it really jarring that I've gone in to work nearly everyday since the beginning of the pandemic (school) and I'm still expected to stand outside the door of the surgery and be shoved documents through a crack in the door like a leper.

What you're not seeing if that their 3.5 days are still over 45 hours work. My friend starts at 7am, and regularly finishes at 9pm and on her half day, works 7am to 2:45pm so she can pick up her kids on that day and has a Wednesday off where she volunteers to give COVID jabs! Yes, she earns well, but she

@Seashor

Have a go at doing their thanklessly exhausting job then come back and tell us.

Many, many thousands of people work in thankless exhausting jobs for minimum wage. Do you pop onto every thread about retail workers/supermarket workers/hospitability workers and post this ^^

Didn't think so.

@brittleheadgirl - important though your role is you aren’t making life or death decisions. Most graduates could theoretically retrain as a teacher in 2 years, becoming a GP would take closer to a decade. I am not saying “random” graduate would be able to teach but it’s a less specialist role than a doctor.