After Hours Visits

There really is no excuse for the continuing problem of getting a doctor to visit after hours. Before the Government began to cave in to unreasonable demands from medical negotiators, family doctors provided twent four hour care. That was the natureof the job.

That is the point. Being a family doctor is more than a job. It is a calling. It is not like being a solicitor or an accountant or even a hospital doctor. What it is, is being responsible for the health and wellbeing of their own patients, who are parmanent and exclusive to them. It cannot stop at six in the evening or remain on hold until eight thirty in the morning. Family doctors must go back to providing their own cover after hours. In the past members of a group practice took it in turns to deal with emergencies, whether at night or the weekend. Small practices combined to share the load. 

How we ever got into the muddle of out of hours contractors is not important. What is important is to put a stop to this ridiculous concept now.