Lots of busy working people are having real difficulty seeing their GP. They have found this ever more difficult. The Government did a big survey of all GPs recently in which they showed great variation in satisfaction rates with our local GPs accessibility.
Concerns which people have expressed relate to:
- Difficulties in booking appointments in advance
- Rarely seeing the same GP
- Not enough GPs open outside working hours
The root causes of these are two decisions which the Government took.
Firstly, they gave GPs a huge pay rise and at the same time let them work less hours.
Secondly, they abolished the local family GP. This means that no longer do people see the same GP who knows them and their whole family. Now they have a practice, essentially a building, and they are allocated to whichever GP is free. This means that there is no long term relationship building between GP and patient.
Mark is committed to local residents having better access to their local GP.