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I think if we anticipated this business of GPs taking a higher share of income in profits we would have wanted to do something to try to ensure that the ratio of profits to the total income stayed the same and therefore more money was invested in even better services for patients. – Patricia Hewitt |
It is rather sad, indeed pathetic, to see Patricia Hewitt criticising the income of general practitioners today. Such a blatant attempt to distract the electorate from the poor management of the service as whole cannot be allowed. The idea that GP wage inflation is the reason for the NHS’s present woes is plainly inaccurate. And yet, this is not the first time that Labour ministers have targeted doctors for the ills of the NHS.
Today, they have further claimed that they could not forsee the overspend on the new GP contract. That hardly makes me feel confident about any other government contract they negotiate. What has happened is that GPs have succeeded in improving their clinical data collection beyond that expected by government. That is because they could see that by doing so they would achieve greater personal financial gain. That was the expected outcome of a contract based upon the the principle of incentivising good clinical practice. How can the government now complain when family doctors have delivered what they asked for? Indeed, what is so wrong with trying to maximize one’s income?
It should be noted that I did not vote for the GP contract. I was a member of the minority group who thought that practising by numbers and losing 24-hour primary care cover was a regressive step for the profession. Interestingly, this group tended to have a younger age profile. Even though it was easy to see that income would have an initial sharp increase, the long-term future of the profession, to my mind, was going to be undermined. Sadly some of my older colleagues concentrated on losing ‘out-of-hours’ cover commitments and generating larger pensions. As a consequence, I suspect time will tell whether the profession will be such an attractive proposition for newly-qualified doctors in decades to come. The sad reality is that those who voted for it will be long gone.
Declared Interest: I am a full-time GP locum who does not get directly paid by the new GP contract.
