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?

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?

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 .

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.

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??

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

100% agree with you there

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?

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.

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.

That's just nonsense. There is no other country that provides 24/7 access to routine GP care.
GP OOH is however available 24/7 and is ridiculously overused and abused.
Amazingly GPs are not prescient and cannot predict or prevent the future.
The government spin has however done a wonderful job at laying rhe blame for their poor resource and provision at the feet of those trying their best to provide the service.

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

And very often those family members arent available because they are working. Even the ones in their 60s cos the pension age keeps going up. Then there are the times family HAS taken the patient to their appointment only to find it has been cancelled then has to be rebooked so family member has to take more time off work to repeat the process.

The question isn't whether any individual GP can. It's whether they actually will. And where you think we're going to get the extra capacity from, even if every single currently practicing GP was happy to do Christmas Day, Good Friday etc instead of days they currently do.

GPs are not there to provide essential/emergence care, if you need that, you go to AE.
The illnesses that are rife during winter are usually viral, there is little a GP can do for these.
GPs and other HCPs also get these illnesses, leading to further staff shortages.

Nurses who work on BHs will be in AE, ICU, surgical wards in other words looking after people who could die with out care, an ingrowing toe nail does not need emergency care, it can wait.

I know 2 GPs who are personal friends (one retired when 70 but still is on a regional public health committee) both say that the range of illnesses they see has widened greatly eg people go to the GP for things that years ago they would have stayed at home for.... plus they have a greater population, screenings, health campaigns & an increasingly older and generally fatter patients.

I take exception to the link between me and GPs leaving. I haven’t seen a GP since before COVID and I am nearly 70. I try very very hard not to!

As with many Gps, Burnout is well paid enough to be part time. A huge pension awaits and avoiding tax on the pension pot mesns they all go part time. Who else gets this benefit? The general public who genuinely want to see a GP don’t get to see one in a timely manner. There used to be Sat morning surgeries. I do think GPs see people who could be seen by a nurse. I also think we, the public, want to see a GP when we don’t really need to,

Just listening to R5. No GP available. Many children being sent to A&E. care at home would be far more sensible.