GPs agree to longer opening hours after 12-month row

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Doctors caved in last night to the government's demands that they extend GP opening hours, ending a year-long dispute with ministers. The British Medical Association, representing two-thirds of GPS, said the contract on offer from ministers was "less damaging" than the alternative they had threatened to impose.

The decision is a victory for the health secretary, Alan Johnson, who this week wrote to every GP directly, asking for all to agree to provide the public with evening and weekend appointments.

He told doctors that the £100m he was offering would give a typical three-GP practice an extra £12,000 a year for staying open three more hours a week.

The alternative would have allowed primary care trusts to commission GP services from other providers, taking thousands of pounds away from GP budgets.

"This is a good deal for patients. We are pleased the GPs committee is now backing our proposals and urging GPs to support them," the Department of Health said last night in a statement.

Doctors leaders reluctantly regard this as the best option available but believe the new deal is unsafe for GPs as they will have to work on their own late at night. The BMA's GP committee will still poll doctors in England this month to find out how they feel about the contract.

The Department of Health has said that more than 6 million patients were unhappy with their surgery opening hours. John Reid, the former health secretary, had allowed GPs to opt out of night-time and weekend care in a contract which gave them dramatic pay rises for meeting performance targets. That put serious pressure on hospital accident and emergency departments at weekend.

Recently doctors have felt public pressure over their resistance to this and also over the junior doctors' protest about changes to their training.

Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GPs committee, said: "This is neither a climbdown nor U-turn but a recognition that between two bad alternatives, one is worse than the other.

"We still have huge concerns that patients will get neither a meaningful service in extended hours, nor will the quality be of a level they deserve.

"We believe the impositions as they stand will be unsafe for doctors, as they will have to work on their own late at night. Patients also won't get the full range of services.

"GPs are willing to do extended hours. We put forward our own proposal in December. We just don't think the government's plans as they stand at the moment will be good for general practice or patient care."

A survey by GP magazine found that two-thirds of 350 doctors polled would turn down the plan.

But the government believes that privately most GPs accept that the new deal is a workable one.


GPs agree to longer opening hours after 12-month row | Society | The Guardian

It's not the opening hours that are pants, its trying to get an appointment that's useless. Our surgery only gives you an appointment if you ring on a monday morning, other than that you have to ring up on the day and see if you can get an emergency appointment.