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'GP patient lists must shrink'

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Published Date: 09 March 2009
HUNDREDS of patients must be cut from GPs' practice lists to allow doctors to spend more time dealing with complex illnesses, a conference will hear next week.
The British Medical Association (BMA) event will be told list sizes of up to 1,800 need to be slashed so that GPs can spend more time with patients.

But doctors will say income must not be cut with the number of patients, and extra funding should be given to allow practices to take on more GPs to deal with a growing workload.

The Scottish Government said the number of GPs in Scotland now stood at an all-time high.

Dr Alasdair Sneddon, a GP in Buckhaven, Fife, will raise the issue of large patient lists at the BMA's Scottish local medical committee conference in Clydebank.



The full article contains 138 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 08 March 2009 9:47 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: General practitioners
 
1

Charles Linskaill,

Edinburgh 09/03/2009 00:32:04

Soo! If the "GP patient lists must shrink", does this mean some of us are to have,.....'NO HEALTHCARE'?

And! How on earth are GP's meant to choose who stays and who goes from their "Patients List"?


2

Highland Mist,

09/03/2009 08:41:40
So are they just going to keep doing what they are doing - overprescribing drugs that we don't really need so that we all die off anyway and their list 'shrinks' ?
3

LAM,

Edinburgh 09/03/2009 10:09:34
I find this very interesting... my GP's office administrator has on several occasions sent my husband and I letters indicating we are no longer within their area. I have had several serious illnesses one which is very rare. I need continuity and to have the confidence in my doctor that he is actually very aware of my conditions and treats them accordingly. In a perfect world this should happen no matter which GP I go to... but we all no it does not. When I have brought this to their attention and discussed it with both administrator and doctor it appears the only real issue is if the doctor had to make a house call. Which in 5 years he has not. I explained that if I was that ill I would be attending an A&E dept of the local hospital.As I am a patient that does not abuse the system nor misses appointments like so many I fail to understand how the government can decide that I potentially no longer can see my gp and have to start all over again and find another. This is neither good for my physical health nor my mental health putting alot of stress on me. Perhaps they should look at cutting habitual no shows for appointments that might be a start.
4

Da Doo,

Edinburgh 09/03/2009 13:45:13
What a good idea, lets make the meet, greet, seat and treat last longer than 10 minutes, quality is better than quantity. And of course quality costs, we should really be paying our GP's more as they will be providing a very different and more personal level of service, I'm surprised that they can do this at the same level of salary.......... perhaps it is just a noble gesture on their part, refelcting the current financial difficulties we all face.
Ah but those people cut from the lists, mmmmmm what to do here?......... I know (says the GP), let's employ salaried GP's and shift all the people that cost too much (we have targets to meet you know) to them, thus protecting our business, and at the same time giving bad press to the very thing that is a threat to our livelihood, sorted, win,win for us!

 

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