23.05.13
Hunt ‘spouting rubbish’ – Dr Laurence Buckman
GPs should not be blamed for failings in emergency care, BMA GPs committee chairman Dr Laurence Buckman will say in a scathing attack on health secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Speaking at the annual conference of BMA’s local medical committees, he will criticise Hunt’s unrealistic plans for doctors to resume responsibility for providing out-of-hours care overnight and at weekends in England.
He will highlight that many GPs already work 14-hour days and do not have the capcity to provide out-of-hours care.
Buckman is due to tell the 400 delegates at the conference: “Despite all the evidence, Hunt continues to tweet that it is all the fault of the GP contract. This is because he does not want to bother with the facts when he can have a bash at those of us who, on his own admission, are overworked and strained beyond endurance.
“The fact is GPs are undertaking more consultations per patient and we are diagnosing and treating more conditions than ever before. The fact is that GPs cannot become the providers of last resort for urgent out-of-hours services.
“While we must play our part in ensuring better continuity of care for our patients, we cannot – and will not – go back to GPs working dangerously long hours or having unrealistic expectations heaped upon us. We need to be freed from the oppression of box ticking and micromanagement.
“Hunt has continued to spout this rubbish when on Tuesday, he told MPs that our contract had had a devastating impact and that pressures on A&E services were direct consequences of the disastrous changes.
“GPs are not prepared to shore up a system that has been rendered unsafe by unwise political meddling. We are happy to work closely with others, including CCGs where there is full GP input, to improve out-of-hours services.”
Hunt is expected to launch a range of changes to the way doctors work, including responsibility to ensure out-of-hours care is available, and a new chief inspector of general practice to oversee patient-focus.
A&E has bEen recognised as an area of the NHS under extreme pressure, by organisations such as the Foundation Trust Network, College of Emergency Medicine and the NHS Confederation.
The number of district nurses has also been raised as a factor adding to the pressure. While attendances in A&E have risen by 50% over the past decade, district nurse numbers have fallen by 40%.
Royal College of Nursing chief executive Peter Carter said: “With this huge reduction in the numbers of district nurses, while at the same time the massive growth in the population and more and more people with complex conditions, I have to say unfortunately we really are failing people who deserve so much more.”
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