Doctors' Poor Handwriting Kills 7,000 and Injures 1.5 Million Annually

[Indy500]

In the grand scheme of things, to the govt, £118k isn't all that much. Even if I assume there are 500,000 NHS doctors being paid said salary, it barely makes 8% of the total expenditure (total being approx. £90 billion according to the health secretary and Telegraph reports quoting her).

 

[Aod]

is it the more education you have, the worst it gets?

without a doubt.

 

[MarcLister]

All mine were handwritten up until three years ago when I switched surgeries.
Not only did they have a computer but two gorgeous female Doctors and assorted good looking nurses.
Win win.

So your knee, ankle, wrist, elbow, shoulder and neck still giving you grief then?

 

[kitten_caboodle]

Do most people's jobs involve life-or-death situations, or bear the brunt of the majority of the government's political spin machine?

well coppers do. Far more life and death situations too, and they on the whole are paid around £90k less than that. Oh yes, and they do get blamed for most things that go wrong too

Since I can't link to the GP contract or Popn Manager, no. But basically the government valued the out of hours service at £6000pa per GP (ie the amount of pay cut they had to take to not be obliged to do out of hours). The out of hours requirement previously varied, but was typically one night a week and one weekend every 6-8 - thats on call 24hrs for anything and everything.

Hmmm. That was built into my mums contract - every other weekend 24h and one night a week (as well) when she was a radiographer back in the 80s/90s. There was no extra pay involved, it was part of the job.

Funnily enough did you know that undertakers are often asked to be on standby 24/7 for 1 week out of every month and at basic level take home around 12k a year? Of course, the life and death thing doesn't come into it by that stage

Maybe I wasn't quite right with my 'less than minimum wage' but it works out at about £6 per hour by my calculations. Little surprise then when pretty much every GP took up the govt's offer.

GPs are now paid for the work that they were previously unpaid for (mostly regular checkups of patients and data collection). The government, in it's wisdom, thought that this wasn't already being done. They were wrong

Interesting, thanks for clarifying it

Most areas, particularly cities, have an out-of-hours service run by GPs - often run from a hospital or clinic - which provides 24/7 cover.

I'm not denying that, but to my knowledge most of them are run on a rota basis which means that in a city each GP might have to do it once a month? The surgeries certainly aren't open all day, night and weekend which seemed to be what you were suggesting.

Besides, that's surely something they knew they would have to do when they chose to become a GP no?

I'm sorry, I just don't buy this whole 'poor GPs' thing. I think on the whole they do a great job but I dont believe that they deserved such a huge pay rise when the service to the patients seems to be getting worse rather than better.

 

[dirtydog]

Will these huge GP salaries mean that more GPs can afford and will decide to retire early, leaving us with a shortage of GPs in future?

 

[j00ni]

well coppers do. Far more life and death situations too, and they on the whole are paid around £90k less than that. Oh yes, and they do get blamed for most things that go wrong too

Yep, and the police force deserve a similar pay rise. Though to be fiar to GPs they have to undergo a minimum of 7 years training before they can even start to train as a GP. After which they have to do a minimum of 3 years specialist training before they can practice alone as a GP. I dunno what police are required to do, but it sure ain't 10 years training

Hmmm. That was built into my mums contract - every other weekend 24h and one night a week (as well) when she was a radiographer back in the 80s/90s. There was no extra pay involved, it was part of the job.

Your mum's situation is the reason I reckon that the same sort of performance-based pay should be introduced throughout the NHS

The surgeries certainly aren't open all day, night and weekend which seemed to be what you were suggesting.

Maybe I wasn't clear, but that wasn't what I was trying to say. If the GPs had to open their surgeries, they would have to pay support staff (nurses, receptionists, etc), which when you have £6/hr is unfeasible

Besides, that's surely something they knew they would have to do when they chose to become a GP no?

Yes, which is why there was a massive shortage of GPs

I dont believe that they deserved such a huge pay rise when the service to the patients seems to be getting worse rather than better.

I disagree, I think services for patients in general practice is exemplary. It maybe could be better, and the govt could have made it so if they had sorted it to give QoF points (what GPs must earn to make the money, each point being worth £120) for things that mattered to patients, rather than collecting data for political reasons.

For example the GP practice I work at could earn money (£840 iirc) from QoF for recording the ethnicity of every patient - how the hell does that make patient care better? But that is a hoop they have to jump through to earn the money - if the government is going to set silly targets, they should expect to get egg on their faces. Admittedly the majority of points equate to good patient care, though a lot seems to be politacl-spin-machine-data-entry

Incidentally my practice refused to gather the ethnicity data as a matter of course

 

[j00ni]

Will these huge GP salaries mean that more GPs can afford and will decide to retire early, leaving us with a shortage of GPs in future?

Maybe. Though the problem at the moment is doctors leaving the NHS (or not ever starting to work in it after graduation) because of the amount of **** thay have to put up with.

It costs £200,000 to train a doctor. Money which is being lost because of Mutilating Medical Craeers

 

[oneilldo]

Whilst they do get paid a lot. The contract is there to try and keep patients out of hospital (if they don't need to be there). A GP gets performance related pay for items that will save the NHS money and increase a patients quality of care. It costs the NHS loads of money to keep a patient in hospital and it is more cost effective and better for the patient if it can be dealt with at the GP's practice. A GP's practice is a business. This is why under the new contract more minor surgeries etc are being done at the GP's practice. The NHS did guess wrong though with the work that was carried out at GP's before the new contract hence the large wages.

However, back to the OP's point the fact that DR's forget to add any information to the record is a major problem.

 

[kitten_caboodle]

I disagree, I think services for patients in general practice is exemplary.

Where do you live?? I might have to move there

At least a week to see a GP, fobbed off to A&E if it's an emergency (i know it's Accident and Emergency but a septic throat isn't life threatening and just needs appropriate medication issuing) and a waiting list for any other doctor in the local area - and that's if they'll take you on if you've got a history of needing medication. I take on board what you're saying, but I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.