GP salaries soar as patients struggle to see a doctor!

 

Average GP salaries have gone up by £10,000 in a year, bringing average GP salaries to £110,000 per annum. If these pay increases were linked to performance, then many GP's would be having a pay cut. Since the COVID lockdown in March 2020, many GP's have stopped having walk-in patient surgeries and now operate a triage system which determines how the practice will deal with your case. 

Many GP's are now extremely reluctant to conduct face-to-face appointments with patients preferring to do telephone consultations. Some GPs have been known to ask patients to cough into the phone. Just how you check a patients pulse or examine their chest or tongue over the phone, remains a mystery. Many people complain that they have difficulty getting to see a GP or complain that they can't get through to their practices by phone, because of the length of time it takes to make contact with the receptionist. Patients say they feel like they've been thrown under a bus by GPs and are not receiving adequate medical care. 

Many GP practices are now staffed by nursing practitioners or other medical assistants who are taking the place of a GP. The doctors union the BMA, say that GPs are overworked but to many people, it looks like they're being mollycoddled or becoming sinecurists. Though GPs, who are self employed, can please themselves whether they see a patient face-to-face, NHS doctors and nurses have no choice in the matter. In desperation, many NHS patients are going private to get medical treatment or are turning the the NHS emergency services to get help. This is putting the NHS under tremendous strain.