Send this letter/email to your labour candidate
 

Hi

Why dont labour address the elephant in the room, the 2004 GP doctors contract that allowed 90% of all GP's to opt out of all out of hours work. Thus putting all the pressure on hospitals? It is these issues that MUST be 100% addressed for labour to have any chance fo salvaging a decent election result

regards

Don't think I'll bother.
If it's such a bad thing then although Labour enacted it,why not during or now after the last 7 years,have this govt not changed it.
More to the point why is this govt not also getting criticism for not doing anything about it too.
If it really was/is a bad thing in the first place.

great attitude, do nothing, that will achieve NOTHING

I don't think I hate anyone in the world enough to assault their eyes with that garbage. In fact I'm going to write to everyone just to warn them about this thread. Everyone in the entire world.

Keep it.

Got other things to do.

how is it garbage?

well unlike many of the frankly pathetic, negative do nothing responses on this thread so far I have emailed my assembly member and here is his response

"There are problems of supply and demand. Undoubtedly Dr's wanting to work more flexibly, and in many cases part time, has created big challenges. But also the extra demand on the system is causing problems too. People living longer, and with ongoing chronic conditions to manage, is putting particular strain on the primary care system. The pressure is forcing in new, and I think better, way of working. So instead of putting all the emphasis on the GP there is now a model of the team of professionals working under the lead of a GP - a physiotherapist, a nurse practitioner, a pharmacist and sometimes a paramedic covering a group of practices. Just us what we need from the NHS is changing so the NHS must change too"

There are more replies too back and forth and the conversation goes on.........

Well it's really badly written and full of typos and spelling errors for a start. Just hard that read. For the eyes, and the soul.

Oh you mean the trivial stuff , rather than concentrate on the actual content and the millions of sick people without a gp to see? Yes I did captitalise etc Now maybe you can actually address the issue?

I don't agree with your issue, though.

The real, similar yet completely different, issue is not people having to go to hospital when they could have seen an out-of-hours GP... it's people feeling like they have to seek medical attention for every little cough, ache and pain in the first place.

Health illiteracy is the major drain. People are afraid of their health, afraid of their bodies, afraid to say "Err you know what, I probably don't actually need urgent medical attention right this very second". It's well-meaning, but flawed, campaigns saying "If you have had a cough for two weeks see a doctor immediately", the implication being "YOU PROBS HAVE CANCER!", when in actual fact everyone has coughs that last several weeks at some point and 99.999% of the time it's a simple respiratory tract infection, usually viral, that even antibiotics are useless for, so actually it's a complete waste of doctor's time.

In other words; the vast majority of people who go seeking out-of-hours "Emergency" care simply do not need it at all... but the public has been nannied and babied to the point that grown adults have no idea how to assess their own health accurately. Most people know, or definitely should know, when they are in an emergency situation and they should immediately head to A&E. If it is not one of those situations, then they simply in most cases don't need medical attention of any kind and could wait to discuss their ailment with their GP within normal hours.

Education of the public is key to lessening the burden on the NHS. Nothing to do with staff.

Yes ALL out of hours doctors calls are fake and therefore ALL doctors wont work out of hours. Genius. Lol. Thanks for at least addressing the subject , at long last. But your reply is the most ridiculous one I have EVER read. I am embarassed for you.

Not "fake"; just unnecessary. The vast majority are to placate people who are worrying about minor ailments that do not require urgent attention.

Also, not to... Err... Tell you what YOU said or anything... But you specifically stated "90%". I don't know if percentages have changed since I was at l school, but as far as I can remember, 90% is not "all".

However, I will be fair: I'm all ears. Please give me some examples of health issues that are not urgent or serious enough to require emergency treatment at an A&E, and yet are too serious to be managed by individuals without the help of a doctor at an out of hours practice?

There are VERY FEW and the vast majority of people rushing to out of hours services simply do not need urgent treatment. They are anxious about their health because they don't understand it. They are panicking over perfectly normal aches / pains / lumps / viral rashes because they're hammered with "better safe than sorry" messages and have no idea what worrying symptoms actually look like.

This costs the NHS billions. Not millions - billions. It is an ACTUAL problem.