Replace austerity with ‘proper resources’ for doctors

Richard Vautrey has called for an increase in funding for GPs after 10 ‘lean years’ which have left doctors facing unsafe workloads, a staffing crisis and rising costs of indemnity.

Speaking at the local medical committees conference in Liverpool, the BMA GPs committee chair said doctors were ‘furious’ with continuing austerity politics.

He said: “No partnership can survive if it’s starved of funding. There’s an old story of a pharaoh in ancient Egypt who had a dream predicting seven good years followed by seven lean years. Well, GPs haven’t been dreaming, we’ve had a living nightmare. The reality for GPs is that we’ve had a decade of lean years to contend with, and enough is enough.

“Is it any wonder that the recently published British Social Attitudes Survey showed a fall in patient satisfaction? And what are patients dissatisfied by – staff shortages, long waiting times, government reforms and a decade of underinvestment. Well, as usual, GPs agree with their patients. But we’re not just dissatisfied by what’s being going on over the last 10 years, we’re furious.”