I've said this before, but I'll say it again. In the nineties we knew 1) that the European Working Time Directive was coming, and so the process of making junior doctors work for over 100 hours a week, as some of the house jobs in my young day did, would have to stop, and 2) that medical schools were admitting students on exam results alone, so that at least half of them were women, and so, with biology being what it is, maternity leave and part-time work were going to feature more. Did we train more doctors? Did we (to quote Victoria Wood) bog-roll.
Now we have the results. Many women doctors with children choose to work part-time, and so, not unreasonably, do many of the men. My husband was a GP in a small town practice and in his early days did one night in 4 and one weekend in four on call, and you can say what you like, that counts as working if you can't even go to the loo without leaving the door open to hear the phone. At holiday times the partners had to cover for each other, so that meant extra nights and weekends on call. I am delighted that these arrangements no longer apply except in the most remote areas.
As MOMB says, GPs can do much more for more conditions than they used to, and that takes time. Also, a lot of things that used to be done in hospital can now be done in GP practices, and people are discharged from hospital earlier than they used to be, so extra GP time and district/practice nurse time is needed for caring for them.
As for house calls, it is quite true that babies and children are portable. If they can be driven to school, Brownies or whatever, they can be driven to the doctor's. The days when the doctor owned the only car in the area are gone. There was a time when patients over 65 would expect a regular call. I'm 65 and I would be horrified at the idea that I need a doctor to call just because of that!
The basic problem though, is that there are not enough trained people around to do the work. Any sign of training more? I doubt it. Politicians are famous for thinking only 5 years ahead.
icanhandthemback, if you think medicine is a predominantly left-wing profession, have you ever considered why that might be?