jstars2 - first class letter, sums it up in a nutshell. However, in the interests of accuracy, there is one aspect that I would like to correct and inform PPruners of the REAL situation.
There has been a huge amount of press emphasis on GPs being awarded huge pay increases...
At the same time GPs are awarded a huge salary increase for doing less work.
This has swept across all the media and paints a grossly false picture. Whilst I don't doubt that there are a few entreprenarial GPs out there who have managed to pocket £250K, these articles are well far of the mark when descibing the 'ordinary' GP's income.
For a start, a GP practice does not belong to the NHS. It is a partnership between doctors who have set up a practice with their own capital and contract their services to the NHS, their income derived from profits and savings generated from services provided.
Secondly, they do not have a salary paid by the NHS - they take 'drawings' out of the business, dictated by the level of profits the practice makes. The total income [NHS & private] has to fund everything - mortgage, building maintenance, gas, electricity, equipment, office supplies, staff salaries and every other business expense [inc paying tax, NI, employer's contributions to staff pensions and VAT]. From what's left, the partners have to decide how much to pay themselves after re-investing some of the profits.
The GPs for whom I work have not had an increase in drawings for two years, and the way things are going, it is unlikely they will take one this year - in fact, they are beginning to look at REDUCING their drawings as the Dept of Health [DH] are starting to renegue on some of the payments negotiated in the New GP Contract.
The much quoted figure of an additional £300M was down to Bliar's cronies not listening to the GP Council. The GPC told the DH at the time that they were under-estimating the capabilities of GPs as more work was demanded of them. The GPs rose to the challenge and did much more than the DH thought they would, hence the under-funding, leading to the defecit in that part of the budget. Rather than doing LESS work, GPs are doing MORE. Who do you think mans the Out-of-Hours service? - GPs, that's who, on their time off.
Like the letter in the Mail suggests, the Bliar Govt is in meltdown everywhere, no more so than in the NHS. If they scrapped half, YES HALF the bureaucracy throughout the NHS, they would save £HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS. And I talk from a platform of knowledge, not speculation.
FJJP