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

[Albertslittletie]

AIBU unreasonable to think there’s no reason for Gp surgeries to be closed for four days over Easter weekend? They aren’t even closed for this long over Christmas.
Why does this happen? I don’t work in the NHS but I don’t understand why most other services seem to run apart from a GP surgery, doesn’t this just force people towards A and E?

(You can ask MNHQ to edit your thread title, OP, as there's a typo. You have to report your OP, I think. (Although I guessed it was 'GP' from the context.))

I don't actually know what happens at mine over Easter. It's heavily reliant on locums at the moment, and the TPP and Anima online systems which are often unavailable.

Lots of services are closed for the whole time, aren't they? My support workers don't work bank Holidays (or weekends).

Didnt even notice that! Thanks!

i realise IABU to an extent to question a massively underfunded and under resourced provider I guess! It just seems like there’s knock on effects from the closure. What happens to the palliative patients etc over Easter?

They have care plans in place.

And even if your surgery is closed there will be an out of hours service that is 24/7 running throughout Easter, Christmas and any other Bank Holiday.

They aren’t even closed for this long over Christmas

They are when it's a weekend, surely. 2 bank holidays and two weekend days that they would be shut on anyway.

It’s only routine appointments that don’t happen. Emergency appointments with GPs are still available.
Our poor GPs are massively overwhelmed, stressed and overworked, let them have a bit of time off to be with their families like everyone else.

They are closed the same length of time for Christmas, it's two bank holidays exactly the same, and then another one for new year the following week.

I agree. Especially if you live in a rural area like me. We don't have an out of hours here. Our nearest proper hospital is 18 miles away. So for 4 days our choice is to ring the out of hours doctor, but if you need to be seen it's A&E 18 miles away.

Sorry that makes no sense, you say you don’t have out of hours and then say you would call the out of hours doctor?

Not sure what the hospital A&E point adds to this discussion, it’s not primary care, plus to be fair the decision to live 18 miles from a hospital is yours. I live within three miles of two hospitals, because I choose to.

I’m a dental nurse and we’re closed too. We and GP staff looks forward to a break with our families as much as anyone else. In our area there are out of hours GP’s and dentists

I think it’s fine that they’re closed. Many people get four days off at Easter. It’s exact the same number of bank holidays as at Christmas.

I don’t see what difference it makes, you can’t see a doctor anyway 🤷🏼‍♀️ closing an empty building for 4 days isn’t changing the fact the the NHS is a joke

YABU.

It's bank holidays. Why should they not get a bank holiday after everything they deal with? OOH GPs exist for a reason

This. Unless xmas day falls on a Tuesday or Wednesday they're always closed for 4 days.

@GwinGwyn I mean the local doctors phone number goes to an out of hours service that is based in England. That's rural wales for you. Yes I guess it must be my fault for choosing to live here, what a silly thing to say.

If you take bank holidays away from GP staff it will become even harder to recruit and retain people to work in general practices. Opening times are already 10 hours a day and the vast majority are at work significantly after the practice closes to complete all the work. Lunch breaks are a distant memory too.

Do you have bank holidays off @Albertslittletie ?

Nope!

A good point but I presumed that was an issue across the NHS in patient facing roles especially….

It just seemed a bit ridiculous to complain about being 18 miles from a hospital when that is a choice you made?

Cross-border NHS stuff is more complicated of course, my parents used to live in Monmouth and there was a never-ending battle between a GP service based in Wales and the nearest hospital being in Hereford. But guess what - they chose to live there!

Also, the NHS would need to fork out bank holiday rates for staff..... what's that? Double pay?

Don't think there's the money for that!

I was a home visiting Marie Curie nurse for many years and along with my colleagues, our patients were attended to 24/7 365 days a year.as they should be,

They are not contracted to open on bank holidays, nor funded for the costs of opening on those 8 days of they year.

My GP is rarely available at any time. Hopeless. 🙄

No the previous poster, but we're in a similar situation (although thankfully not quite as far), and our out of hours doctors are based at A & E; if we call 111 and get put through to an OOH Dr and they want to see us, we have to go to the general hospital (where A & E is also based) to be seen.