To think this budget will finish us off

[BurnoutGP]

I am a GP Partner of over 20 years. I am now senior partner for the last few years. We have seen year on year below inflation funding increase. With an explosion in demand and massive shift of work from secondary care. We have issues wirh recruitment.
Our partner income is shrinking year on year. We are now always overdrawn and this gets worse every month.
We just cannot soak up the MLW and NI without adequate resource uplift.
I think we will be done. I'm so very tired of the constant battle and the demand and anger while working "part time" 60hr weeks.
We will have to hand back our contract. And we wont be the only one. That will leave one surviving practice in my area.
I'm done.

Don't feel sorry for us. We'll cope as we always have. It's the lower middle class panicking about budgeting, not us.

I'm surprised at your faux pity-party for the poorer of society, whilst simultaneously boasting of your wealth. It's quite bad taste - it seems money cannot buy someone out of crass behaviour.

I'm assuming this attitude has come about because a working class person has told you that the business model you have is not fit for purpose anymore, if you're panicking and having serious 'all night' talks with your DP about having to sell your business. Imagine that - the working class telling lower mid class they're underselling themselves - must be quite the insult, if you have mid-class views, I suppose. It's not quite the personal attack you have taken it as. In fact, I believe I did tell you it was quite noble (certainly it would benefit lower earners like myself currently) - but, as you originally posted, it's just not sustainable anymore. I'm in full agreement with you.

I'm glad you are able to sell your business - it will save you a lot of heartache in the future, and if you aren't willing to raise your prices, then this DOES make good business sense, to sell out. As you say, your OH will still find work, most likely for a practice that is successful and still profitable because it charges more than £15 for a consult. I'm also glad you were able to tell us all about it, I imagine it's helped make you feel better, because it definitely seems that's the default self regulatory tactic when the old self esteem has been dented slightly. What a shame.

It would be lovely if cheap veterinary care in order to help animals and clients was sustainable long term throughout a changing economy. You've found it sadly, is not the way it works.

I am delighted to see ‘Neoliberal’ on this thread. It’s made me all misty-eyed. I thought the days of Deidre Spart had gone for good.

Nice to see some red meat left politics instead of just the tedious Starmer cheerleading. 👍

id much rather the Tories we’re in (although I didn’t vote for them) than this shower of Machiavellian wankers. People are naive. There was Mr Starmer in his nice little suit telling us all how he was going to save everyone from the nasty old Tories.

Since coming into power they have taken money off old people, made public transport more expensive, told police and judges to go after people for comments on social media, defended two tier policing (yes it came from the Home Office!), made millions of people unlikely to get pay rises, undoubtedly will cause many businesses to pack up. Put peoples jobs at risk. Made it likely that many children will have their education disrupted (which he was so keen wouldn’t happen to his own child accepted benefits from his “chum” Ali.

Mr Blobby would do less damage in number 10.

I think when you list “shutting down calls for rioting” on Social Media as an example of doing “damage” it says all that needs to be said about your position on such matters.

I mean, you’re entitled to it and all. I do feel you may discover you’re in a minority, however.

@Feelingathomenow In the last year or so my Mum in her late 80s has paid to see a private consultant for two different health issues because the NHS waiting lists are so long. My parents can't really afford it but her current issue isn't particularly nice and she is in a lot of pain. The consultant she saw recently also works in the NHS and was falling over himself to apologise. GP finally saw her face to face for this problem after 6 months. It defies belief.

Labour taking away winter fuel payments pales into comparison when you see what damage the Tories have done. I work in adult social care and there are lots of people really struggling. Lots of them are elderly.

This is how I feel - the fox is in the hen house.

What a gold-plated, ocean-going, mother of all fuck-ups, voting Labour in.

You mean ignoring rioting in Leeds and marches shouting antisemitic hate each week that have been going on for a year, but calling those reacting to the killings of three little girls and the injury of others ‘far right’ and ‘spreading dangerous misinformation’, stating it was not terrorism related and the perpetrator was a Welsh Christian (because slating Christians is fine?) when it turns out they knew about Ricin and Islamic terrorism training manuals in the home of the person who has been charged.

This is only the first budget I don't think the next one will bring much comfort.

Yanbu. I had been hopeful when they said they were targeting 'economic growth' but taxing businesses to death certainly won't encourage growth.

Next budget they'll give us worse news, when the current debacle backfires.

"What a gold-plated, ocean-going, mother of all fuck-ups, voting Labour in."

Yes because we've had a grand old time for the past 14 years and everything is rosy.

If they couldn't do a single thing to improve the country in 14 years what makes you think they would do it in the next parliament?

Do you think Labour will ever elect anyone other than a white male as their leader?

"Since coming into power they have taken money off old people, made public transport more expensive, told police and judges to go after people for comments on social media, defended two tier policing (yes it came from the Home Office!), made millions of people unlikely to get pay rises, undoubtedly will cause many businesses to pack up. Put peoples jobs at risk. Made it likely that many children will have their education disrupted (which he was so keen wouldn’t happen to his own child accepted benefits from his “chum” Ali."

They've means tested the winter fuel allowance. Kept the cap on public transport that was due to expire, but increased it. Cracked down on racist rioting scum. Raised taxes for business as the least-worst option to raise money for public services. Added VAT to a luxury product to improve state education for the 94% that use it.

I feel optimistic for the first time in a long time.

"Do you think Labour will ever elect anyone other than a white male as their leader?"

No idea. I haven't got a crystal ball. But I think they should be led by the best person for the job regardless of gender or race. I mean, Margaret Thatcher and Rishi Sunak aren't remembered well are they.

Margaret Thatcher not remembered well?

A shameful comment.

Yes Mrs T is rated as second to Churchill of 20th C PMs. Although I knew Labour are economically illiterate and would double down on the things the Tories did wrong and make things alot worse, I did have hopes that they would try and reform the NHS which had got more and more unproductive with more and more money especially since Covid. Something like a European system is the only way forward and I thought Streeting could see that. But looks like they are just going to throw more and more money into the black hole, funded by making employing people more costly (which will actually cost more as more small businesses will give up and make their employees unemployed). What a mess!

This government is reforming the NHS, not the funding model which doesn’t need reform and would achieve nothing.

How are they reforming the NHS? And yes the funding model does need to change.

https://www.nhsconfed.org/publications/proposed-nhs-reforms-what-do-we-think-so-far

The funding model is fine.

I don’t think that’s the point here though. The Tories aren’t in power, it’s irrelevant and hypothetical what they would have done now. The Labour tactic of “but oh the Tories” no longer works - now is the time to say what are Labour doing? Is it good for the country? So far the answer to this last question is overwhelmingly”no”

Oh but Labour was being used by the Tories for years-you still hear it now!

Not sure what that is - looks like a course you went on? All the stats I've seen rate UK as about 24th in the world while spending OECD average which isn't great. Cancer treatment times and survival rates for various cancers bad, although I don't use the NHS much anecdotally its bad in places, the European models do better.

Any chance of a link to those stats?

Cracked down on racist rioting scum.

‘called certain groups islamophobic for saying the Southport attack was Islamic terrorism whilst covering up the fact they were right, and ignoring other racists marching through multiple cities every weekend’

Re Southport husband said today that he wondered if it would affect the people already imprisoned for their social media and physical presence in Southport.

I mean, whatever you think about the budget, they haven’t crashed the economy in a matter of days, and Starmer’s lasted longer than a lettuce, so on that front it’s progress.

Seriously though, it’s “Once bitten, twice shy” I’m afraid. Until the Tories can show they’ve cleared house and offer anything more than “more of the same” but with added culture war froth, anyone would be mad not to be cautious. Even putting politics aside, the party was a basket case, banging on about their “five families” like they were the Mafia or something and changing prime ministers, chancellors and Home Secretaries like flipping musical chairs. Why the Hell would I trust them when precious little appears thus far to have changed?

Whatever their stripe of politics, I want a cohesive team in charge. Not a party who remind me of a bunch of bickering kids led by a clueless teacher, offering warmed up leftovers of 14 years that left us with our public infrastructure - our very core services that any government should keep ticking over at a bare minimum - in tatters. Get a grip, get new people in (not the same old suspects) and get a new vision that offers deliverable hope (how many of Rishi’s targets did he meet again?) instead of fear-mongering, and I might just reconsider.