Another day, another ill-informed public comment from the Confederation of British Industry bashing general practice.
I know that
business is important but it’s the overwhelming self-importance that really rankles, especially when they seem to have no
idea what they are talking about on primary care services.
You may have read today’s Daily Mail splash headlined ‘The GP earning £380,000 a year’.
The Freedom of Information Act investigation of GP pay in 22 PCTs explains: ‘The highest-paid of all was a GP in North-East Essex PCT, who earned £380,394. The trust, covering 40 surgeries in the Colchester area, would not name the doctor or say whether the figure included outgoings.’
The Daily Mail is back to its GP-bashing ways today. Family doctors (who are already earning £107,000 a year, don’t you know) could be in line for a £27k salary hike for carrying out the swine flu vaccination campaign.
The fact that GPs will have to pay for staff time and other resources if they administer the immunisations only gets a mention further down the story – and, even then, the Mail says that some GPs may still choose to ‘pocket the cash’ for themselves.
The story initially came from the HSJ and, while the BMA is in talks with the DoH about GPs running the campaign, it has denied that the cost per dose has been discussed.
It is all very disheartening that this has descended into a ‘money-grabbing GPs’ story.
The H1N1 vaccination campaign is going to cost money, whoever carries it out. Many of the reader comments that accompany the Daily Mail piece online imply that GPs should be undertaking the immunisations, without extra pay, because ‘it is part of their job’.
Seeing as income has been falling over the past few years, I don’t know of any practice that can afford to run a massive vaccination programme without receiving extra funding. Or of any practice where the partners could afford to ‘pocket’ the £27k each that may supposedly be on offer rather than spending it on delivering the campaign.
The way GPs are paid is complex – it is not as straightforward as earning a salary (although most people who read the mainstream press would not realise this). GPs are independent contractors and, as such, they need to be paid for taking on a huge amount of extra work, which will have significant cost implications – they may need to open later, pay nurses to work extra shifts and set up special clinics.
But, of course, ‘GPs seek fair funding for big increase in workload’, does not have the same draw as a ‘money-grabbing GPs’ headline – and does not give the Daily Mail the opportunity to express its unique brand of moral outrage.
What a stupid question. I can’t imagine that there is one sane person in the country who would seriously compare the value of a highly trained medical practitioner with that of a member of parliament.
For once, there’s some good news. The NHS is at its most popular since 1984.
The last time the NHS was this appreciated by the general public, Frankie Goes to Hollywood was riding high in the charts with Relax, Beverly Hills Cop and Ghostbusters were breaking box office records and I was probably sporting a dodgy pair of legwarmers in an attempt to look like the kids from Fame.
Satisfaction levels with the NHS have continued to rise since 1997, according to the National Centre for Social Research. And, unsurprisingly, GPs yet again scored higher satisfaction rates among the public than any other NHS service.
This is more evidence of just how valued general practice is. Which begs the question, why does the DoH seem so intent on dismantling general practice in its current form? What can it possibly gain from introducing more private providers and greater competition? According to the policy wonks, improved patient satisfaction.
Surely the DoH should be concentrating its efforts on the parts of the NHS that the public are most dissatisfied with, which according to this research is the quality of medical treatment in hospitals and dentistry.
Dentists’ new contract has been universally derided and means that in some parts of the country there is little or no NHS dentistry provision. This is a real issue for the public and one they are clearly unhappy about. Yet, you don’t see health ministers taking dentists to task over and over again in the press, or acres of outraged media coverage about how much they earn and their opening hours.
It seems to me that the DoH is concentrating its efforts to improve patient satisfaction on the wrong part of the NHS. What do you think?
So at last it’s out in the open. The figure we had all been waiting for has finally been uttered.
The GPC is seeking a 4 per cent rise in practice income for next year. In other words, double the rise that NHS Employers recommended in their evidence to the Review Body.
Just when you thought the world was finally starting to accept that GPs’ pay is declining – as opposed to rising by ‘eye watering’ amounts – the issue is back on the front pages.
As the annual pay negotiations begin, and the BMA calls for a 4 per cent increase, the national newspapers have unearthed financial incentives for GPs to cut referrals.They have also managed to add these up into tens of thousands of pounds ‘for the average practice’, and cause a national outrage in the process.
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