41 gp surgeries

My GP practice has the same wait issues as most others but I am sure they try their best. It had over 30,000 patients (September 2023) with a mixed catchment ranging from middle-class to a high degree of social deprivation. There is a lot of new housing development too.

I don’t care who I see for ten minutes. With 30,000 plus patients, it’s unlikely a doctor will have anything but a passing memory of what ails a particular patient. My notes are there for any practitioner to read and proceed from.

Maybe the reason some doctors go into general practice is precisely so that they can work flexible hours rather than the punishing schedule that junior hospital doctors are expected to work. The majority of doctors in my local practice are now younger women who may have child care responsibilities

As for hospital doctors, who know what hours they work? Often, we only see them for an outpatients’ clinic that lasts a couple of hours. Many consultants work in both the NHS and private practice.

At least the BMA does now allow junior doctors to have 11 hours rest a day - which means they may work up to 13 hours. I’d rather not see a doctor who may be exhausted after a long shift.

ronib are you sure there are 41 GPs for 33,000 patients, that seems an awful lot? I think the average full time GP has between 2,000 and 2,500 patients on their list, so even with a lot of part time GPs you seem very over-provided?

ronib that sounds like our Practice too. As a child we had one GP in the village. You walked to his house, sat and waited to be seen, no appointment needed. He did everything, surgeries, home visits, delivering babies, prescriptions etc . as far as I remember later on a Nurse went in for a few hours to help out. This little practice covered about 5 villages as well as ours.

Years later it was taken over by a practice in a nearby town. There were about 6 doctors involved, a couple of nurses and one receptionist. Then a new health centre was built and we now have about 15 GPs nearly all part time, a whole team of receptionists, loads of nurses, a pharmacy, physios and a couple of paramedics who help out. Do we get a better service than we did in the 50s and 60s? Definitely not. We now wait a couple of weeks for an appointment and 7 working days for a repeat prescription.

Two of the full time GPs retired not long ago but alongside working there they ran a private cosmetic surgery between them and left their brochures in the waiting rooms which I didn’t think was on at all.

Tin Soldier you're very lucky.

Ours now has 9 GPs, some part time, who serve 2 large villages. Since we moved here 30+ years ago there an extra 1200+ houses. We had 5 full time GPs then who served both villages. We now have a 6 week wait for a telephone appointment, followed by 6 week waits for any further appointments for results, etc - was 5 weeks a few months ago. There used to be all sorts of mother/child sessions, prenatal, antenatal, elderly, etc in the afternoons but those have all gone. There is a practice nurse but that's it. Neither of us have ever met a GP, even when we have had health issues.

Interestingly do hospital doctors/surgeons also struggle to work full time? I imagine that working in A&E must be very stressful for the doctors on call. Bit of a mystery ….

I think with 20 gps there’s a chance that you might remember who you saw but 41 is beginning to feel very impersonal?

I have lived in the same house and been with the same GP practice for 40 years.

I have seen the practice develop from three partners operating from a tiny house to a four-partner, two salaried-doctor practice in a new purpose-built surgery to a modern three-location practice with over 20 doctors and a multitude of different specialists including nurses and advanced nurse practitioners, respiratory specialists, pharmacists, paramedics who do home vists and deal with minor illnesses and infections, physiotherapists and social prescribers.

There’s an online triage system that ensures that a patient is seen by the most appropriate specialist.

I like is this way. I don’t see any problem having medical professionals who work part time so that they can have a better work-life balance.

Yes, I think perhaps you are struggling to move with the times.