By: DR GUBERNACULUM

DR GUBERNACULUM — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:47:39 +0000

I, too, worked in the ‘good old days’ when we did our own out of hours and I agree with most of what you say. Yes we need more GPs so that people can do OOH overnight and not have to work in the morning. However, you fail to highlight the elephant in the room. The reason why so many PCTs resort to drop in doctors is the lack of young GPs who will do any OOH. Yes, some of us got the work life balance wrong but the modern doctors have got their balance wrong as well in an opposite direction. What the hell did you join medicine for? Did you think it was a simple matter of doing the set hours and then going home? OOH is in a crisis because the last generation (like me) have gradually withdrawn from shifts in the forlorn hope that the younger GPs would take over.
A better question would be to ask why medical schools have created a cadre of doctors who refuse to do any more work than they have to.
By the way, you made an excellent point at the start. Because we now have a system where visits to the elderly or nursing homes are only done acutely we are missing the chance to prevent illness and hopsital admissions. If GP looked at nursing homes a lá wards and had regular ward rounds, it would be interesting to see what problems could be avoided.

Comments on: Why David’s Gray death was predictable

By: DR GUBERNACULUM