I REFER to the article in last week’s newspaper by Dr Simon Parkinson with respect to unhappy GPs.

In recent years, we have seen unprecedented increases in GPs pay and at the same time a significant decrease in the hours that they work yet still they are unhappy!

Many years ago a GP had to do not only surgery, but out of hours home visits often working well into the evening and at times the early hours without the significant “back up” of being able to make referrals to specialists in any given field.

I will be the first to admit that since the health service as we know it today started, we have increased the medical knowledge beyond what back then we could ever have imagined, thus leading to longer healthier lives that as individuals we do not necessarily pay enough for.

The question I would ask of Dr Parkinson is this, in recent months St Stephens surgery has merged with Church Hill surgery, thus taking doctors away from St Stephens for several days of the “practice week” meaning quite often a wait of several weeks to see the same doctor. Also I read that another respected partner in the practice works for Virgin one day (is that a week/month or year?), whilst other younger doctors appear to have been employed in the surgery.

If there is so much pressure, how does he respond to the above?

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