Something that hasn’t been reported in the news (yet) and which is surprising to some degree is that we are on the verge of a GP strike. The strike is about the GP contract and GPs are currently being balloted. This is not the BMA model employment contract but the contract between the government and the GP partnerships (its a little more convoluted than that but in essence that’s what it is), ie the cash that the government gives out to allow them to run their service. In short it is up for renewal and needs to be improved to enable GP services to get better, as surgeries are being starved of resource. Let’s see what Kier Starmer does here. If he continues in the same manner as the Tories then expect to see a strike which will involve limiting of same day appointments, withdrawal of services and so on.
Surely this will mean the strike doesn’t go ahead? One of Labour’s flagship policies is getting appointment times down.
The first issue that's going to hit is they'll have to early release another batch of prisoners, as the prisons are about to hit capacity again. At least Labour can start the process of seeing how bad things are from today, but there are no quick fixes to many of the issues. Ultimately, the judgement has to be where things are in 5 years time, relative to today. They need to win another mandate to govern at that point, and no-one will be able to blame an inability to pass legislation at that point. They've done the first bit required, and that's extremely welcome news, but now the real work begins, while the Tories and Farage engage in another lurch to the right from the opposition benches.
I wrote to my former MP about this in May asking him what he is doing about the lack of GPs. He, or more probably one of his lackies, gave me the party line on training more GPs and record funding for the NHS etc. The truth is that our local GP practice relies on locums (loca?) at vast expense. One reason why surgeries are short of funds. Jr. Didcot Red 2 is a GP in South London he works 12 hours. He says that he would be much better off as a locum but is committed to the NHS. A locum can turn up do their surgery and go home leaving a good deal of the paperwork to the practice. We know that a doctor is well paid but let’s not forget that they need 7 years training and now end up with debts well into 6 figures. There is a world market for doctors and the country needs to compete to make the profession attractive and make young doctors want to stay in the UK. Work life balance is important or in HR speak “hygiene factors” are also important.
