So now even the most battle hardened 9-5 GP surgeries (or so they claimed, 10.30 till 3.30 more like in practise) are now caving in and doing the bare minimum to tick the "late opening" box to keep their political masters happy, and no doubt trigger some incentive payment or other
Lets look at it from the patient perspective
So your GP's have 3 physical sites, spread quite far apart, THEY ONLY NEED TO DO LATE SURGERIES AT ONE OF THESE 3 SITES to satisfy the politicians
Lets look at the type of appointments, "no emergencies", "no appointments made the same day", "no appointments for routine procedures such as blood pressure check", "no dressing change by nurse"
and while we cannot register with any other GP (we tried when we moved here but the closed shop dictates all other GPs will refuse to register anyone at this address and claim we are "too far away", yet these are the 2nd and 3rd (and so on) closest surgeries, giving the patient in practise no choice of GP at all
So no consumer pressure able to force the GP's to open at more client friendly hours, cos the patients have no say in who their GP is, and only the top down government dictat which means that if you attend one of the 2 surgeries where this practise of 3 sites works you will not be able to access any out of hours appointments
Late appointments for GPs seems to be a bit of a laugh as well, as they close well before most commuters will have returned home
So all in all the government spin and mismanagement have led to hype and change but the piss poor access for the patients remains
1 comment:
Guess what's happening in Wales? Just five GP practices in South Wales have signed up to extra hours. Local Health Boards anyway decide whether to bribe GPs to open the extra hours and -- you will love this - my local one, Cardiff, has decided not to try, as they need to bribe GPs to open during opening hours! (So, some are 'opening' on Wednesday afternoons; but not necessarily seeing patients then.)
Post a Comment