NHS

My surgery has nine G.P's. Four are female, my GP ,female , worked two days a week, two other female job share. Some of the male GP's are part time because they choose to work part of the week at the hospital twenty miles away and I know two only work part time.

A part time GP's wage is equal to a full minor management wage. (eg shop manager) I don't begrudge them that, except that nowadays some GP's only want to write a prescription to cover the symptoms rather then try to heal the problem. A robot could do that.

Well we already fund it ourselves by paying our taxes. We could all pay a bit more that way, instead of paying a lot more for insurance companies to make a profit.

It could well be a good thing to have more part timers, four part time doctors instead of two full time doctors will mean a greater range of opinion and experience.

Part time doctors will surely be fresher and and sharper than a worn out full timer. Plus, part time workers often put in more than their contracted hours, so we gain that way.

If doctors can spend more time with their children, surely that's a good thing.

I agree that those who have been trained by the NHS should spend at least as long as their training time working for the NHS, perhaps they could choose five years full time or ten years part time, or a mixture of the two.

I don't find part time doctors better than full time, have blood tests , check results and either a weeks wait for your GP ,or two weeks if she is booked up, other choice is another doctor who will phone you, give results but tell you to see them to discuss it further , this means going over the same problems again.

My dd is a student doctor. She hopes one day to combine her career with having a family, maybe working part-time for some of that. That's the way the world of work is going and we have to change our expectations, really.

The 'family doctors' of old are gone for many, especially as doctors now have so much bureaucracy and admin to deal with.

I don't agree that doctors should be forced to work for the NHS for a certain period. No one else in the UK has to do that, plus doctors are more likely than many graduates to eventually repay their student loans and pay more tax.

I do think more use should be made of other health professionals such as pharmacists and specialist nurses. For instance, my Dh needs his ears syringed. To get that done, he has to see a doctor, who will tell him to make an appointment with a nurse, all of which will takes weeks. Instead, he's going to a private clinic on Tuesday, which will do the job for about £40. I suppose that's a win for the NHS, really, but not everyone has the money to solve that particular problem.

Its always been the norm in care work that you're obliged to stay for so long after doing training, or else pay back some or all of the costs. Obviously, just a few hundred pounds for nvqs, maybe a thousand.

People have always worked part time in the Health Service, its not new it happened in the 60s and 70s so people could raise a family and work. Life changes, there is huge progress in the conditions that can be treated, it is not the people working in the system who are the problem it is the system. There has to be a better way so people do not spend hours on trolleys in corridors, but politicians never commit to what is really needed, money to properly modernise and most people seem reluctant to pay more, personally if I thought it could sort out the Health and Social care systems I would pay more.

The government want to privatise the NHS. That's why we have these problems.
Nothing to do with whether we pay more into it or not.

SueDonim I agree that we ought to rethink our expectations of the GP service, saying "I want to see my own GP, nobody else" is not realistic.

I also think that the the Govt would like to privatise, but wont dare to until they have run the service down to the bone.

I very much dislike the idea of rationing treatment in a sort of deserving and undeserving ill people way. That is against the whole ethos of the welfare state.
We are already having that sort of attitude as regards poverty, let's not start doing it with illness.

An interesting chart here on health spending in the NHS.

It's not that our expectations that have gone up, but that spending has gone down, quite dramatically.

There is less part time working in the NHS than there used to be. There used to be lots of part time jobs which suited working mothers but most are now full time. Some experienced professionals, especially in specialist areas, are still able to negotiate reduced hours return to work after maternity leave as the other option is that they leave altogether. I think Prof Cumming is talking nonsense.

He wasn't talking about nursing either, which is becoming a more professional environment.
That was never male- dominated.

I am very happy with the part-timers. They are often women with families and they bring a grounded approach and understanding to family problems. It also means that they are not so over stretched that they burn out, as my OH did, working in full time general practice. The spouses and families get to see them and they get some normal life from which to take strength and come to their work refreshed.

It is regularly being suggested that the way to get more employment, not just in the numbers of people working, but also in the hours worked and pay they get, is to cut down to a four day working week. I've always thought it a good idea to have more part time work.

All people who have their training paid by the taxpayer ( teachers, doctors, nurses, medical professionals of all areas)should be obliged to undertake a certain amount of time working for NHS/LA funded schools etc. It is grossly unfair and immoral that the independent sector, be it medicine or education, should be able to scoop up people without the expense and commitment of training.

I am sure when my husband was given day release to go to college to train to be an architect he had to sign a contract which said he would have to work there for the same number of years afterwards; otherwise he would have to repay pro-rata.

The difference now is that they pay their own fees, and end up coming out of university with a debt of up to £50,000.

I know DJ both of mine have those debts ( and interest at 6.1 usury rates, but that is a different topic ). But, the work experience part of these medical and teaching qualifications are provided by state/tax payer funded institutions.

Never thought of that ,Gill. You are right.
Can't imagine why anyone becomes a nurse/teacher these days. It must be most demoralising. I presume doctors eventually get back to what the profession used to be. Still disheartening.
Why does the government want to do everything on the cheap?

Do the independent sector really scoop up many of the newly qualified in any sector. Some of course, but more than 10%?

When I graduated in the mid 1960s everyone was getting their knickers in a twist over the brain drain of new graduates to the USA, and demanding that new graduates do so many years work in the UK before they could emigrate, but I only knew of one person doing that and other people did not know any, including several in medicine and engineering.

I think all of our GPs in the local surgery, bar one, are part time. At Christmas they are all on leave and so there are locums to cover. It is hopeless to request a specific doctor. My husband needed to see a consultant urgently and was told the wait was 4 months. Went private and saw the same guy the same week. Go figure.

It's not that our expectations that have gone up, but that spending has gone down, quite dramatically.

I don't think you've read the chart.
It shows the average increase in spending.
Each year in positive.
This means, each year, the spending is increasing.
Some years it's increased more than others.
But every single year it has increased.
That means it has never gone down.

The taxpayer funds many types of training. Should lawyers, vets, engineers, musicians, economists and so on also be obliged to work for the state?

The 'work experience' of trainee doctors & nurses is cheap labour for the NHS. Students in England are in fact paying £9000pa for that WE.

It depends how you define ‘gone down’. If inflation is greater than the amount by which the budget has increased then spending has gone down

My DiL is not a GP but is in specialist training at our local hospital and has been studying medicine for 13 years.
At 30 she and DS are hoping to start a family soon. She'll take 6 months maternity leave and return to work, hoping to be a registrar in 4/5 years.
Surely no-one would question her commitment.