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Should GPs open at weekends?

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Should GPs be open at weekends?

I don't know about other people's GPs but my local surgery has opening hours of Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm. Now for people who have normal work patterns, it is impossible to go to the doctor's without booking time off. You can't get your prescriptions, you can't even book an appointment... and you should not be forced to go to hospital (open all times) just for basic checkups, worries etc.

Should GPs open at weekends, then?

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Some do.

It would make more sense. My current one doesn't, which means it's not that unusual to wait a week+ for a routine appointment. I don't work either; so not restricted by time and don't request to see a certain GP. (ie, I just want to see someone)

My last one did and it was so much easier.

Reply 3

silverbolt

yes. because people get sick outside of office hours

Reply 4

Annie-96

I think they should trial 5 days a week being tuesday, wednesday,thursday, friday, saturday so that they still get two days off. I have often struggled to get an appointment simply because I couldn't get time off work and the evening appointments are always so busy.

Reply 5

Tiger Rag

Original post by Annie-96

Do people not get sick on a Sunday and Monday?

Reply 6

suzywithaZY

My local GP has special appointments slightly outside normal working hours - i.e. some appointments between 7am and 9am and others between 6pm and 7pm which can be used by people who work long hours, if needed. I'm pretty sure this is becoming a more regular occurrence in GPs across the country.
So no, GPs don't need to be open on weekends. A medicine lecturer at UCL (who works as a GP) was telling me that they tried it in a few GP surgeries across the country but found that there was simply not enough demand for it.
Furthermore, if you do need to be seen by a medical professional on the weekend, you don't necessarily need all GP surgeries to be open. If it's a serious problem or one that you're concerned about, you can call NHS 111 and get referred to an out of hours GP service or you can call the out of hours doctor for medical advice. The list of things you can do goes on. There are so many options available to people but they're generally too lazy to find out about it.

It's unfair to expect GP surgeries to stay open on weekends simply because people are reluctant to miss a few hours of work once in a while or are too stupid to google other options that they have. GPs are private services contracted by the NHS and still need to make a profit. If there isn't enough demand for GPs on the weekend, it could result in them making a loss and struggling to survive.
At most, GPs should be open for a few hours on a Saturday but nothing more than that.

Reply 7

Annie-96

Original post by Tiger Rag

Do people not get sick on a Sunday and Monday?

yes but for small practices with few staff they need days off or days of rest. At least saturday openings mean more people can access their gp

Reply 8

suzywithaZY

Original post by Tiger Rag

Do people not get sick on a Sunday and Monday?

If they do get sick on the two days the GP isn't open, there are plenty out of hours service available to them:

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/doctors/Pages/out-of-hours-services.aspx

Reply 9

CCC75

My GP surgery has two weekday evening surgeries and a Saturday 10am - 2pm opening. That is a good arrangement and as long as the surgery has more than one GP they can share the out of office hour timetabling. Alternatively, there are walk-in medical centres.

I have worked in roles with unsociable hour shifts and providing a 7 day service is great unless you are delivering it. I would not want to be seen by a GP pee'ed off at having to provide a Sunday surgery.

Reply 10

InArduisFouette

Original post by thechemistress

If they do get sick on the two days the GP isn't open, there are plenty out of hours service available to them:

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/doctors/Pages/out-of-hours-services.aspx

woosh !

OOH services are not able to deal with everything people would see their own GP for

regardless of what some says extended day and some degree of saturday opening would be a definite improvement ( even if it;s is just a reversion to what happened before the wonderful record tractor production new GP contract of the Bliar regime )

Reply 11

suzywithaZY

Original post by zippyRN

Considering most people see their GP for minor problems such as headaches and colds which can be solved by a quick call to NHS 111, I'm pretty sure OOH services are more than capable of dealing with those left

Reply 12

Kvothe the Arcane

No. But it would be nice if there were a walk-in service in every area. My last GP was a walk-in so though getting apartments was quite difficult, I'd usually just use the walk-in service as I saw one of my own Drs anyway.

Reply 13

elliehb

Generally, I think that if the ailment isn't bad enough that you are willing to take a couple of hours off work then its probably not bad enough to see a GP for it in the 1st place

Reply 14

Desmond123456

Yes of course they should. It's like asking should the post office deliver parcels when people are at home? Of course.

These services suffer from poor service design or lack of service design. One of the first and most basic things you do in service design is work out the service hours based on the needs of the customer.

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Reply 15

Treeroy

Original post by Annie-96

yes but for small practices with few staff they need days off or days of rest. At least saturday openings mean more people can access their gp

then hire more staff surely? No one is suggesting that each doctor should work 7 days a week; only that there are doctors available 7 days a week.

Original post by elliehb

Generally, I think that if the ailment isn't bad enough that you are willing to take a couple of hours off work then its probably not bad enough to see a GP for it in the 1st place

but you shouldn't have to take time off work and risk your job security.

Reply 16

suzywithaZY

Original post by Treeroy

then hire more staff surely? No one is suggesting that each doctor should work 7 days a week; only that there are doctors available 7 days a week.

but you shouldn't have to take time off work and risk your job security.

Hiring more staff = training more doctors. The government is currently broke, I don't think that training more medical students is right at the top of their list of priorities. I read somewhere that each medical student costs around £25,000 (or was it £250,000?) to train. Might want to check that statistic. But basically, it costs a ton to train doctors. So yeah, longer GP opening hours would equate to doctors being even more overworked than they already are

Reply 17

Treeroy

Original post by thechemistress

Cut doctors wages then they earn too much . Anyway the government is not broke.

Reply 18

suzywithaZY

Original post by Treeroy

Cut doctors wages then they earn too much . Anyway the government is not broke.

Wooooow, the immaturity. Doctors earn too much? Perhaps in America/Australia that's true but in England that's certainly not the case, especially now with the cuts to wages that the government is proposing. Junior doctor wages start on a measly £22,000 - £23,000 pa. The NHS website states a figure closer to £30,000, but this accounts for the extra pay junior doctors get for hours worked overtime which is being removed by Jeremy Hunt's new contract. £23,000 pa for hours and hours of what is essentially slave labour. I was talking to a consultant recently and he said the typical working hours for a junior doctor were from 7am to 9pm. Not sure if he was over exaggerating but still, it holds some truth.
Doctors work long hours for very little pay and you suggest that their pay be cut further just so you don't have to leave work for an hour or so when you have a GP appointment? Flipping hell. The ingratitude of the general public is unreal. The country would go to **** if doctors decided they didn't want to work anymore.

Hahah, the government's not broke?
Last time I checked, which was about 2 weeks ago, the NHS deficit for this financial year had reached £1.8bn, and we're not even halfway through the year yet.

Honestly, you seem to know little to nothing about what you're talking about and the ramifications of your proposals. Do a little research before you start blabbing nonsense.