What about all the other things that I understand the NHS buys for the GPs, like the premises under some circumstances?

Tanllan - If the government buys a building for a GP, and doesn't charge them rent and rates, I'd be surprised.  The NHS is short enough on money without buying buildings for GP's.  Look at the state of my local hospital.  Dates back to the 50's.

Juby - My doctors told me there old telephone system was 15 years old and on it's last legs.  If they done nothing, lives could of been at risk.

Look at it this way, If GP's earn so much, why is there a shortage of GP's in the UK currently ?

I didn't say that GPs earn too much, I was merely trying to point out that they are not on social security like many of their customers.

I agree that Alistair Campbell is "economical with the truth" in fact I heard him lying the other day on the BBC.

There is difference between doctoring the truth in order to put Mr Blair in the best possible light, that is called spin, but when you hear the man lying with your own ears, broadcast on BBC. Then he is.

J

I was interested in the post by Mr Magoo. Much of it is word for word from the hand-out lying about in my Group Practice surgery - supplied by NEG! Nuff said.

Perhaps more interestingly they refer to them as premium rate numbers:



see: http://www.bt.com/btcom_redirectLink.jsp?action=redirectLink&targetLinkID=PIS_UK...

Quote:

Most GP's surgeries are self-managed, with responsibility for working out their own budget.

The NHS probably did not specifically predicate funding on any small detail you could think of - blinds or curtains, seating, white lines in the car park, ...

Your doctors are being disingenuous in avoiding acknowledgement of their responsibility for this decision.

I bet this company is certainly not the supplier of the best value phone system anyway - they spent 4 years developing it; what on earth were they doing all that time?

There are two kinds of GPs excluding locums.

There are self-employed GPs who are independent contractors to the NHS.  They are runing businesses and mostly operate as Group practices employing a practice manager as well as other staff. They pay their expenses (e.g. premises, telephone, cleaning, utilities, stationery, etc.) but their expenses are reimbursed to them directly or indirectly by the NHS.

There are also salaried GPs whose salary is in the order of £60,000.  Numerous Primary Care Trusts advertise for salaried GPs at this salary level, e.g. Heart of Birmingham, see link: http://www.bpcssa.nhs.uk/Vacancy/JobFiles/JD2189.doc.

One can safely assume that the self-employed GPs have a higher net income than the salaried ones even after accounting for their expenses.

GPs are therefore not on the breadline as some of their, especially older, patients may be.  There is no denying that most of the GPs work very hard and I for one do not grudge them their income.

What is shameful though that they should seek to supplement their income, and generate income for the 0870 service providers, at the expense of their patients.  It may be that many of them have been duped by the likes of NEG and are not fully aware of the implications of switching to the 0870 system.

If making appointments is an essential part and precursor to treatment, and GPs derive a financial benefit from the process through their 0870 numbers, then they are also in breach of their contracts with the NHS which prohibits them from charging patients for treatment.