Drs being paid £10 for home Covid vaccine vacs

I'd need to know more about the size of their practices and how many home visits they're going to have to do before having a 'solid' opinion on this.

How much travelling will they have to do, for instance? Will they get travel expenses as well or is the £10 per visit meant to cover that as well? Does the £10 cover the cost of all the disposable PPE they're going to have to use? Is it personal payment or payment to GP practices?

I'm sure there are other valid questions as well.

We just made the same comment. I was surprised to see it was the GP doing the home jabs. I would have expected a nurse to do it. Are there still district nurses? Housebound friends of mine had their normal flu jabs at home from a nurse. I would have expected it to come under the normal financial arrangement.

Now.....not sure about this but I'm sure someone (many even) will correct me. I think doctors currently receive a payment for each vaccination carried out within their practices. I thought this recently mentioned payment was perhaps a travelling/inconvenience redress.

Sign of the times Gone are the days when they'd " just pop in to see Mrs Smith while in the same area ".

GPs are still working in local surgeries. They are doing telephone consultations and face to face consultations too. They will have to go into houses where the virus is already perhaps and use their own transport to do so. This is a time of a global pandemic where the NHS are stressed beyond belief, where doctors and nurses are at risk ,are working crazy hours and you are quibbling over them getting £10? I wouldn't do their job and I'm more than grateful to each and every one of them.

Gone are the times when their practices were small enough for them to be able to do that, EV.

As far as I understand things, it's the GP practice that receives the money. They are basically private businesses contracted to the NHS.

I can't see a problem to be honest.

It’s not the person who gives the vaccine that is paid but the practice . As said above, the practice will be providing PPE and paying any travel expenses. Apart from travel time, any home visit takes longer than just administering the vaccine in a clinic. As for cost, compare the cost of a home visit to vaccinate with the cost of an unvaccinated person catching COVID and going to hospital

River xed post

EllanVannin

Sign of the times Gone are the days when they'd " just pop in to see Mrs Smith while in the same area ".

EV or maybe Mrs Walsh a bit deja vue don't you think ?

Will the GP have to stay with the patient for 15+ minutes after administering the vaccination to ensure that the patient can be treated if they go into anaphylactic shock? If so, that needs to be factored in.

When I said the person giving the vaccine isn’t paid, I meant of course not paid in addition to the salary they receive as a practice nurse or whatever. If they are doing extra hours, then they’ll get paid whatever the rate is for that.

I think it`s only fair tbh.
You don`t have to leave your house,Gp`s have to use their car plus fuel it.
That in itself deserves a £10 of anyones money IMO.

Pretty much what Riverwalk said. This mass vaccination is an additional service, it can't be rolled out as a favour or an act of charity by GP practices. I dislike that the media reports these things as if GPs are pocketing a tenner like some kind of tip or bonus.

You are right Riverwalk.GPs in the main are private businesses contracted to the NHS and receive payments for vaccinations, including children’s, which their staff do, and quite a few other services too.

It’s always been the case, and I would have thought £10 doesn’t actually cover the cost. My mother had a home vaccination from a member of staff, not GP, from her surgery.

Sorry crossed with you NellG.

Someone employed just to to administer vaccines is paid to do that. When the GP is doing it, it is in addition to their normal duties, which they are still doing, so if the practice get paid per jab, they are getting it for overtime.

There is quite a lot of organisation goes into running the vaccinations at the surgery, I counted four other people involved in the process as well as the GP who actually vaccinated me. There are the costs of the equipment etc too.

Sorry, mine was done at the GP surgery, not at home, but it was still in addition to the "normal" business. Home visits are even more labour intensive, and involve travel costs too.

NellG

Pretty much what Riverwalk said. This mass vaccination is an additional service, it can't be rolled out as a favour or an act of charity by GP practices. I dislike that the media reports these things as if GPs are pocketing a tenner like some kind of tip or bonus.

And the ill informed deliberately divisive reporting by the media of this issue leads directly to ill informed threads being started on here. The effort that GP practices and the rest of the NHS has put into
this amazing roll out is deserving of nothing but our praise and thanks not mean minded carping based on no knowledge whatsoever of how GP practices work and are financed.

As an ex Practice Manager, I can tell you that most GPs don't receive a salary. Their income is made from claiming for every service their provide. They get a certain amount per patient, (not much!) and then claim for anything the practice does. The vaccinations may be done by nurses or GPs, the claim goes in, and the money comes into the practice pot. Same for cervical smears, treatments for diabetics, asthmatics, running clinics, etc. A GP going into a nursing home to do vaccinations will take him/her away from other services, it is right that they should get paid.

Salaries for staff, and non-partner GPs are paid out of the pot, also maintenance of the buildings, IT equipment and support for it, practice drugs for the emergency bags, and all equipment for the consulting rooms and office spaces.

These are large independent businesses, they have an accountant which advises the GPs, after all the other expenses have been paid out, what is left over and how much they can take as 'drawings' which is their income. The senior partner gets the most of course!

GPs are a business not a volunteer organisation. Why should they not at least expect to cover their costs? I wonder how many who think they should, worked for free?

Thank you to all those who explained the details of this.

Our GP Practice carried out 99 visits to housebound patients on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago. Nine clinicians were involved. Money well spent.

suziewoozie, yes it totally grits my too. However the value in these threads is that people may learn something or explore the issues in more depth and change their perspective based on the replies. Of course some wont.

It might even stop them reading the papers or watching TV and believing that modern journalism is the equivalent of objective reporting... I can dream

NellG if only it worked like that.